Tackling the Crisis of Missing BIPOC Women & Children

Shantel Destra: Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law to establish a task force on missing women and girls who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The sponsors of the legislation, State Senator Lea Webb and Assembly Member Karines Reyes, say the task force will help shed light on the grave amount of missing BIPOC women and children each year and deliver policy recommendations.

State Senator Lea Webb: This landmark law is a huge milestone for the safety and security of Black, Indigenous people of color, women and girls across our state. It is an alarming number of women and girls of color who go missing or are murdered each year. No family should ever have to deal with these traumatic experiences.

SD: The legislation has broad support from Democratic lawmakers hailing from areas across the state, including State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Senator Samra Brouk, Senator Nathalia Fernandez, as well as a few Republicans who voted in favor of the measure when it was brought to the floor. Long Island Assembly Member Taylor Darling underscored how the issue directly impacts the constituents in her community.

Assembly Member Taylor Darling: It appears some children are more valuable than others and I just want to publicly say that our children matter. We care when they're not at home. We'd like them not to be human trafficked and sex trafficked and one child missing should affect all of us. That is all of our problem. We have so many children from my community that are reported missing and classified as runaways and again, that sense of urgency, that time, that 48 hours that we need to locate our children, it's missed. Those are missed opportunities which often lead to death.

SD: And advocates agree. Dawn Rowe, founder of Girl Vow, underscored the importance of bringing awareness to the issue in order to see change.

Dawn Rowe: When you do this work, you learn quickly as you work with families that silence is loud and injustice can last a very long time. So today is historical, as we begin the arduous task to begin our dialogues, as we change the lens where girls have been reduced to only understanding trauma. So today, we activate healing.

SD: And looking at the work ahead, Assembly Member Karines Reyes agreed with advocates who called for an oversight initiative in the coming years.

Assembly Member Karines Reyes: I think there should be some kind of oversight particularly with law enforcement because they kind of piecemeal the response in these cases they take very in-the-- they make very in-the-moment decisions about what warrants a runaway, what warrants an Amber Alert. We really want to make sure that those processes are streamlined regardless of where you live, regardless of who goes missing. We want to make sure that those processes are streamlined for all people who go missing and that they are accountable when there are breaches in that process.

SD: And the work is not over just because the governor signed the bill into law. The governor and the legislature will now go on to identify members of the task force in the coming months, who will then have two years to come up with policy recommendations to help address the issue of missing BIPOC women and children in the years to come.