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Policies regarding the reporting of missing members of the Armed Forces

Division A · Title V: MILITARY PERSONNEL POLICY · Subtitle F: Investigations and Other Legal Matters

Plain-language summaryAI

The Department of Defense must create policies that set minimum standards for reporting when a service member is missing. These policies will define how absences are categorized, require notifying the military criminal investigative agency within three hours, and require informing the service member’s primary next of kin within eight hours. The Secretary of Defense must establish these policies within 180 days after the law is enacted.

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Section Text · Sec. 552.
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(a) Policies required

Chapter 80 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section.

1568. Policies regarding the reporting of missing members of the Armed Forces

The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe policies for the Department of Defense that establish minimum standards with respect to reporting the discovery that a member of the armed forces is missing. Such policies shall include—

(1)

standards for the categorization of absences of members of the armed forces;

(2)

a requirement that the appropriate military criminal investigative organization be notified not later than three hours after a member of the armed forces is discovered to be missing; and

(3)

a requirement that the primary next of kin of the member (as defined in section 1513 of this title) be notified not later than eight hours after a member of the armed forces is discovered to be missing.

(b) Implementation

The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe policies required by section 1568 of title 10, United States Code, as added by subsection (a) of this section, not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.