A mural placed on a stage symbolically depicts the grief and violence Indigenous women face. In the background, advocates for an end to that violence paint signs to march with later. Photo by Gloria Gomez | Arizona Mirror/University of Arizona
An alert system established to issue statewide alerts for missing Indigenous or endangered persons is now officially online, offering a vital tool to assist law enforcement agencies in addressing an ongoing crisis within the state.
“The Turquoise Alert is a critical communication tool that will save lives,” Gov. Katie Hobbs said in a press release. “With this alert, we are making sure our law enforcement officers and the public can respond quickly when it matters most.”
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The Turquoise Alert System bill was signed into law by Hobbs in May, creating a new statewide alert system using the federally authorized Emergency Alert System.
The alert is for anyone under 65 who doesn’t qualify for an Amber or Silver Alert. An Amber Alert is issued when a minor is abducted, while a Silver Alert is for individuals over 65 or with a cognitive or developmental disability who go missing.
Before the Turquoise Alert, if a person 18 or older went missing in Arizona, a public alert of their disappearance was neither available nor required, a challenge many Indigenous families are familiar with.
“This tool is a meaningful step to improve the safety and well-being of communities across Arizona, and in particular Tribal communities, which for too long have suffered from a crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people,” Hobbs said.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety will manage the new alert system, and it will operate in parallel with the Missing and Endangered Person alert code, a national alert code adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in the fall of 2024.
“The Turquoise Alert represents a vital step forward in protecting vulnerable individuals in our communities,” DPS Director Col. Jeffrey Glover said in a written statement. “By empowering the public with timely, actionable information, we can make a critical difference in locating those who are missing and bringing them home safely.”
To support the launch of the new alert system, a training curriculum was developed by multiple agencies to educate officers about the alert.
“The training will consist of an eight-course module that introduces methods and techniques for responding to and investigating cases of missing persons and implementing the new alert,” according to the Governor’s Office.
The alerts will be distributed regionally through various methods, including the Emergency Alert System, Wireless Emergency Alert and Arizona Department of Transportation vehicle message boards.
Alerts will also be sent through the requesting agency’s social media platforms and the DPS Alerts website. Law enforcement agencies across the state will also receive an All-Points Bulletin broadcast.
A Turquoise Alert will be activated when a person goes missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances and is believed to be endangered.
The alert will be issued when there is a report of a missing endangered person, including tribal members, under the age of 65, and specific criteria are met, such as: the law enforcement agency investigating the report has exhausted all available local resources; the person has gone missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances; the missing person is in danger or with a potentially dangerous person; and there is sufficient descriptive information to assist in their recovery.
“Seconds count any time an Arizonan goes missing, a fact that our Native communities know all too well,” Ak-Chin Indian Community Chairman Gabriel Lopez said in a press release. “The Turquoise Alert will help more quickly notify law enforcement during these emergencies, improving the odds of a person’s safe return.”
‘A promise that Indigenous lives matter’
Indigenous leaders across the state praised the launch of the state’s Turquoise Alert system, many noting how it has been a long time coming and will support Indigenous communities in various ways.
“Over the years, Tribal communities have faced the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons without advanced emergency systems in place, and we see the Turquoise Alert as a proactive step in the right direction,” Inter Tribal Council of Arizona President Paul Russell said in a press release.
Russell, who also serves as the vice president of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, said the Inter Tribal Council respects the efforts of Hobbs to provide critically needed public safety assistance for Arizona’s 22 tribal nations.
“The new Turquoise Alert, also known as ‘Emily’s Law,’ will advance safety in Arizona not only within Tribal communities, but throughout the State of Arizona,” he added.
For Gila River Indian Community Governor Stephen Roe Lewis, establishing the Turquoise Alert System through Emily’s Law is deeply meaningful to him and all tribal communities in Arizona.
“We have long lived with the painful reality that our Indigenous brothers and sisters go missing at alarming rates and too often slip through the cracks of systems not built to protect them,” Lewis said in a statement.
Lewis said the new alert system gives Indigenous communities a fighting chance to bring their people home, which means no family has to wait in silence, wondering whether anyone is looking for their loved ones.
“This law is a promise that Indigenous lives matter, that our people deserve to be found, and that no one should feel invisible,” he added.
More than 10,600 Indigenous people were reported missing in the U.S. in 2023, roughly 3,300 of whom were 18 or older, according to the FBI.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System reported that more than 23,700 missing persons cases were in the database at the end of 2023, and 255 of those were for Indigenous people.
In 2021, Arizona was ranked as having the third-largest number of unresolved cases of missing Indigenous people in the country, according to NamUs. Currently, there are 93 cases of missing Indigenous people in the NamUs database for Arizona.
The Urban Indian Health Institute reported that Arizona also has the third-largest number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the country.
Their study reported 506 known cases in 71 urban areas across the country, with 54 cases in Arizona, including 31 in Tucson.
There is still no comprehensive database that provides accurate numbers or data related to missing and murdered Indigenous peoples across the country. Without a centralized system among the thousands of federal, state, and tribal entities, the information available remains limited.
When examining the numbers, it’s important to note that Indigenous people make up only about 6% of Arizona’s population.
The state has three major metropolitan areas, all of which are home to large Indigenous populations. Each of Arizona’s 22 tribal nations has many tribal members living on their tribal lands.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren expressed gratitude to state legislators for their bipartisan effort in passing the bill, as well as to Hobbs for signing it into law and activating it across Arizona.
“The Turquoise Alert system is a vital tool designed to help locate and reunite missing Indigenous relatives,” Nygren said in a press release.
Nygren said his office will utilize the tool in collaboration with the Navajo Nation’s existing public safety resources in hopes of enhancing the tribe’s emergency response efforts to “end the MMIP crisis.”
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This post was originally authored and published by Shondiin Silversmith from AZ Mirror via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
