Legislation establishing new protocols for missing persons investigations in Illinois has been signed into law. The Missing Persons Identification Act, or SB 24, was championed by Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart and sponsored by Senator Michael Hastings and Representative Debbie Meyers-Martin.
The law will require law enforcement agencies to immediately take reports of missing persons and enter them into the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System (LEADS). It also eliminates any waiting period before a report can be filed. Additionally, agencies must collect existing fingerprint records, dental records, photographs, and other biometric information for inclusion in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), a federal database, if the person remains missing for 60 days.
Law enforcement will also be required to collect fingerprints of the missing individual and search them against all available local, state, and national repositories rather than limiting searches to local criminal databases. This is intended to expand identification efforts beyond those who have had previous involvement with the criminal justice system.
Cases must remain active within agencies and in relevant databases until the person is located or returns.
The guidelines are based on experiences of Sheriff’s Police detectives who reopened the John Wayne Gacy serial killings investigation in 2011. During that process, detectives observed many missing persons cases were incomplete or overlooked.
Ongoing concerns about similar issues in current investigations led Sheriff Dart to establish the Missing Persons Project in 2021. This unit applies modern investigative methods and uses databases such as NamUs to find missing women. According to officials, more than 40 cases have been closed since its creation.
Governor JB Pritzker signed SB 24 into law on August 15. The legislation will take effect January 1, 2026.
"This bill takes important steps forward by mandating immediate action when someone goes missing," said Sheriff Thomas J. Dart. "By removing unnecessary barriers and requiring comprehensive use of available data systems, we hope to bring closure faster for families searching for loved ones."