Earlier this year, Arizona established a Turquoise Alert, aimed at alerting the public of those under the age of 65 who disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
The law was inspired by the disappearance and murder of 14-year-old Emily Pike, a San Carlos Apache tribal member. But Leila Woodard, who is the founder of the Arizona missing child task force, says the law needs some modifications.
“I think that just from the tribal communities as a whole, they had hoped that more alerts would have been issued by now," Woodard said. "There’s 65 children listed on Department of Public Safety’s website that are Native American that are missing.”
Woodard said none of those children have received a Turquoise Alert and only three alerts have been issued since the law was signed. She said there are barriers to getting a Turquoise Alert issued. One of the biggest ones, she said, is a law enforcement agency being required to state they’ve exhausted all resources trying to find a missing person.
"For instance, the first Turquoise Alert that was issued, there was 23 days between when the child went missing and when the alert was issued, which is too long in my opinion," Woodard said. "The way that the law and alert system was written, it wouldn't even have protected Emily."
