Capitol Notebook: Free kits to help families prepare for missing children

Roughly 546,000 kits from a program designed to help families be prepared to help law enforcement if their children ever go missing will be made free to Iowa children thanks to donations from two energy companies through a national program.

MidAmerican Energy and Alliant Energy covered the cost of the kits — roughly $1.6 million — made available by the National Child Identification Program, officials said Tuesday at a press conference that included Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and former professional football player and coach Mike Singletary, and was held at the West Des Moines Police Department.

Singletary, who played for the Chicago Bears and coached the San Francisco 49ers, is an ambassador for the program.

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The program’s kits allow parents to collect and store that physical information about their children, which could be helpful to law enforcement officials if ever their child goes missing. The kits include an inkless fingerprint card and a DNA collection site, and take less than five minutes to complete, officials said.

The families then store the information themselves — the kits are only presented to law enforcement officials if the child goes missing. Officials say that physical information could help law enforcement officers in their effort to find the child.

A program leader said with these donated kits, Iowa becomes the fifth state to make kits available to all children in the state.

The kits will be free to Iowa children and will be distributed through schools, officials said.

The National Child Identification Program was established in 1997, and since then has distributed more than 70 million ID kits throughout North America, the organization says on its website.

Nationally, 450,000 children run away each year, 300,000 are abducted by family members, and 58,000 are abducted by non-family members, the organization says.

Bird declines comment on policy review

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said she has no updates on her review of the state’s policy to reimburse sexual assault victims for contraception, and declined to answer questions about the review during a press conference on a separate topic.

Bird hosted with myriad other officials a press conference about the donation of 546,000 kits from a program designed to help families be prepared to help law enforcement if their children ever go missing.

Bird has paused the state’s practice of allowing the state’s victim compensation funds to pay for emergency contraception — and, in rare cases, abortions — for victims of sexual assault, while she reviews the state policy.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Bird said she does not have any updates on the review, and did not answer a question about what she is considering in her review before an official cut off questions that were not about the donated kits. Bird did not take questions from reporters after the news conference.

Payment for emergency contraception for nearly 70 sexual assault survivors has yet to be reimbursed by the state, while one claim for an abortion also is on hold, according to Planned Parenthood North Central States, based on Attorney General’s Office records obtained by Iowa Public Radio.

Lawmakers increase human trafficking penalties

Those convicted of trafficking anyone under the age of 18 could be sentenced to life in an Iowa prison under a bill that unanimously passed the Iowa Legislature.

The Iowa Senate voted 49-0 to pass House File 630. The bill, which previously passed the Iowa House, 96-0, would increase prison sentences for human trafficking in Iowa.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has expressed support for the bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Penalties for human trafficking in Iowa Code currently range from an aggravated misdemeanor to a Class B felony, depending on the age of the victim and the specifics of the offense.

Current law also allows for a deferred judgment or a suspended sentence for a person who commits a human trafficking crime. That would no longer be an option under the bill, which also provides that a person who knowingly engages in human trafficking is guilty of a class “B” felony punishable by confinement for up to 25 years. If the victim is under the age of 18, the person is guilty of a class “A” felony punishable by lifetime imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Inmate death

John Roth, 74, who was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in Cedar County, died Friday due to natural causes, the Iowa Department of Corrections announced. Roth was at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at the time of his death, the state corrections department said.

Roth was sentenced in 1985 for the murder of his stepdaughter Martien “Tina” Harper in December of 1984 near Clarence.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau