Washington activates MIPA system
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, July 5th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
OLYMPIA – A new alert system has now been activated by the Washington State Patrol that will hopefully help the agency find and assist indigenous people who are in danger. The Missing Indigenous Person Alert System will be added to alert systems already in place, which include AMBER alerts highlighting missing children, SILVER alerts highlighting missing seniors, and ENDANGERED MISSING PERSON alerts highlighting missing adults.
The criteria for the MIPA system to be activated are that an indigenous person is missing due to unexplained, involuntary, or suspicious circumstances or is believed to be in danger because of age, health, adverse weather, or other circumstances and is believed to be unable to return to safety without assistance. There must be enough descriptive information available that could reasonably assist with the safe recovery of the person like photos, height, weight, age, hair color, distinguishing physical characteristics, clothing, etc. Further, the incident must have been reported to and is being investigated by law enforcement.
Once an alert is activated, all Washington law enforcement will be notified electronically, and information will be distributed via email and fax to a list of subscribers. To subscribe to the email, visit https://www.wsp.wa.gov/crime/alerts-missing-persons/
Scroll to the bottom of the website listed above and select subscribe.
Graphic from the Washington State Patrol
