During the regular sessions of the 2009 Indiana Legislature, Senate Bill 307, more commonly known as the Silver Alert Bill, was passed.

The Silver Alert Plan began official operations today, when the bill goes into effect. According to a press release from Indiana State Police Sgt. Noel Houze, the new law addresses the concerns related to “Missing Endangered Adults” and “High Risk Persons,” as defined by the Indiana Code.

The Indiana Code defines a “missing endangered adult” as an individual at least 18 years old and is believed to be: a temporary or permanent resident of Indiana; at a location that cannot be determined by family and friends; incapable of returning to the missing individual’s residence without assistance by reason of mental illness, retardation, dementia or another physical or mental capacity problem.

A “high risk missing person” is defined as: a person who is missing as the result of abduction by a stranger; a person whose disappearance may be the result of the commission of a crime; a person whose disappearance occurred under circumstances that are inherently dangerous; a person who is missing for more than 30 days; a missing person who is in need of medical attention or prescription medication; a missing person who may be at risk due to abduction by a non-custodial parent; a missing person who is mentally impaired; a missing person who is less than 21 years of age; a missing person who has previously been the victim of a threat of violence or an act of violence; a missing person who has been determined by a law enforcement agency to be: at risk of injury or death; or people who are reported as missing that meet the requirements for a Silver Alert will be listed on the new Silver Alert Website, which can be found at http://www.silveralert.in.gov/.

According to the release, there are two types of Silver Alerts: statewide and regional. For a statewide Silver Alert, a vehicle must be involved or other exceptional circumstances must be present to warrant the statewide Silver Alert, such as an abduction. If a vehicle is not involved and all other relevant criteria are met then a regional Silver Alert will be initiated.

Indiana’s Silver Alert Criteria includes: the missing person must be 18 years of age or older; the person must be an endangered adult or a high risk missing person; the request must be recommended by the law enforcement agency of jurisdiction; and sufficient information must be available for public dissemination that may assist locating the missing endangered adult.

Citizens are encouraged to go to the Indiana State Police Website at www.in.gov/isp or the Silver Alert Website for further information.