California passes race-based 'Ebony Alerts' program for missing black youth

On Sunday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 673 into law, thereby officially making California the first state in the nation to authorize the use of a separate notification for black youth, ages 12-25, who are "reported missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances, at risk, developmentally disabled, or cognitively impaired, or who have been abducted."

The new "Ebony Alert" system, which is set to go into effect on January 1, 2024, will enable the state's Highway Patrol to broadcast information via electronic signs related to the disappearances. Radio, television, cable, satellite, and social media systems will be encouraged, but not required, to help as well.

According to data from the National Crime Center, 141,000 black children under 18 went mising in 2022. Many, including those at the Black and Missing Foundation, have shown that missing people of color are less likely to have their stories highlighted by the media.

Many such cases are reported as "runaways," and thus not broadcast as Amber Alerts.

"When someone who is missing is incorrectly listed as a runaway, they basically vanish a second time," State Sen. Steven Bradford explained back when the bill was first proposed in April. "They vanish from the police detectives' workload. They vanish from the headlines. In many ways, no one even knows they are missing. How can we find someone and bring them home safely when no one is really looking for them."

Bradford said he hoped the new alert would help "address the often ignored or lack of attention given to Black children and young Black women that are missing in California," and "bring home missing Black women and Black children in the same way we would search for any missing child and missing person."

This is not the first demographic-specific alert adopted by California. The state already has a Silver Alert for missing seniors, as well as a Feather Alert for missing Indigenous people.