New law to help track missing persons faster
A new law taking effect in Minnesota this summer is designed to help local authorities track missing persons faster.
Starting Aug. 1, authorities will get immediate access to a missing person's cell phone records. Cell phone companies will be required to disclose call location information when a person is missing and at risk of death or serious physical harm.
The Winona Daily News reports the Kelsey Smith Act is named after a Kansas teenager who was abducted and murdered in 2007. It took more than three days for her cell phone provider to give location information to police -- and her body was found less than an hour after police got those records.
Federal law states cell phone providers may disclose information in emergency situations, but the new state law requires it in Minnesota.
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Information from Winona Daily News
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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