AG announces new steps to tackle missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives crisis

March 12, 2024

Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced a new public-facing portal for information to help with the missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives crisis in New Mexico on Tuesday. This will be in addition to a new task force and state budget allocation also aimed at helping with the crisis. […]

Susan Dunlap



Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced a new public-facing portal for information to help with the missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives crisis in New Mexico on Tuesday. This will be in addition to a new task force and state budget allocation also aimed at helping with the crisis.

The portal will include a database built from the data collected and vetted by the FBI and it will be the most accurate list of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives in the state of New Mexico, Torrez told NM Political Report. He said one of the components to the database that will be really beneficial is that the families of the missing and murdered will be able to view the data in real time.

He said that if an Indigenous person is believed to be the victim of a crime, and the person is not in the database, the family will be able to find the information about which law enforcement agency to contact to initiate an investigation. The database will also connect Tribal law enforcement with law enforcement agencies outside of Tribal land so that the information on the victims is not siloed. Torrez said another feature he expects to be built into the functionality of the database will be to allow for nonnative law enforcement to know which Tribe or Pueblo the missing or murdered Indigenous person is a member. That is a function that has been missing from the current reporting system and Torrez aims to fix it with the new database in time.

“We find that someone in an urban environment in Albuquerque, they file a report and check a box that someone is Indigenous but [the form] doesn’t give you more specific information, what Tribal community they come from. This will simultaneously notify the Albuquerque Police Department and [the Tribe or Pueblo]. It connects that Tribal law enforcement agency with the responsible detective in state jurisdiction and enable collaboration, sharing tips and information,” Torrez said to NM Political Report.

More:
https://nmpoliticalreport.com/issues/women/ag-announces-new-steps-to-tackle-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-relatives-crisis/