GAO Reports Enhanced Data Collection to Aid Law Enforcement in Locating Missing Indigenous Women
On November 1, 2021, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report reviewing the federal response to missing and murdered Indigenous women.
As tribal jurisdictions request better federal assistance and more resources to tackle missing Indigenous women's cases, the report focuses on the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Interior (DOI) procedures for handling these cases.
According to GAO, there is no centralized database for tracking all missing indigenous women that includes racial and incident information, so law enforcement must navigate four different websites to manage cases and generate statistics. As a result, Indigenous women are underrepresented in statistics. Further, tribal law enforcement agencies are not required to report missing people over 21, and widespread mistrust of law enforcement results in underreporting.
Efforts to address this problem are continuous. On December 2, 2019, President Trump created the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives (Operation Lady Justice) through Executive Order. Marcia Good, Executive Director of Operation Lady Justice, confirmed with FEDagent that the operation between the DOJ and DOI expires on November 26, 2021. It is unclear if the operation’s duties will shift to another task force.
In four recommendations, the GAO sought to improve data collection strategies so that Indigenous women, be they missing or murdered, can be accurately accounted for.
To identify trends and areas of concern, the GAO advises the Attorney General (AG) to develop a plan that identifies how, who, and by when key steps will be accomplished in existing federal databases and future data that will be gathered. Moreover, the AG should develop a strategy for disseminating information about the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) which identifies milestone dates, and coordinate outreach efforts with Indigenous tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indigenous organizations.
Investigating law enforcement agencies may have taken steps to deal with the crisis, but some measures have yet to be taken to improve intergovernmental coordination and data collection.
To that end, the GAO advises the Secretary of the Interior to produce a draft plan establishing and appointing all members to the Joint Commission on Reducing Violent Crime Against Indians in partnership with the AG, as instructed by the Not Invisible Act of 2019.
It was expected that the Secretary and AG would appoint members to the commission by February 7, 2021, but no members have been appointed to date. The GAO emphasizes DOJ and DOI will be better able to meet these and other unfulfilled requirements if they develop plans to address them.