35-1-8. Acquisition, collection, classification, and preservation of information assisting in identifying deceased persons and locating missing persons.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia.

(a)
It shall be the duty of every law enforcement agency to:#
1. (1)
  Acquire, collect, classify, and preserve any information which would assist in the identification of any deceased individual who has not been identified after the discovery of such deceased individual;#
2. (2)
  Acquire, collect, classify, and preserve immediately any information which would assist in the location of any missing person, including any minor, and provide confirmation as to any entry for such a person to the parent, legal guardian, or next of kin of that person and the agency shall acquire, collect, classify, and preserve such information from such parent, guardian, or next of kin;#
3. (3)
  Exchange such records and information as provided in paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection with other law enforcement agencies of this state, any other state, or the United States. With respect to missing minors, such information shall be transmitted immediately to other law enforcement agencies; and#
4. (4)
  Report any case of an unusual illness, health condition, or death, or an unusual cluster of such events, or any other suspicious health related event to the Department of Public Health and the appropriate county board of health.#
(b)
1. (1)
  As used in this subsection, the term “facility” means a facility pursuant to Chapter 3, 4, or 7 of Title 37, relating to treatment of mentally ill, developmentally disabled, and alcoholic or drug dependent persons, or an institution classified as a nursing home pursuant to Code Section 31-7-1.#
2. (2)
  A person hospitalized or resident in a facility shall be considered to be a missing person at the time such person’s unaccounted for absence from that facility is reported by that facility, either by telephone or in writing, to a law enforcement agency.#
(c)
Any law enforcement agency which receives a report that a person who has Alzheimer’s disease or other mental illness involving dementia is missing shall immediately open an investigation for the purpose of determining such person’s whereabouts; and no policy for applying any waiting period prior to initiation of a missing persons investigation shall apply in the case of a person who has Alzheimer’s disease or other mental illnesses involving dementia.#

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Code 1981, § 35-1-8, enacted by Ga. L. 1984, p. 690, § 1; Ga. L. 1985, p. 1128, § 1; Ga. L. 1992, p. 6, § 35; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1504, § 1; Ga. L. 2002, p. 1386, § 10; Ga. L. 2009, p. 453, §§ 1-4, 3-5/HB 228; Ga. L. 2011, p. 705, § 6-3/HB 214; Ga. L. 2025, p. 1029, § 35(1)/SB 153, effective July 1, 2025.

Amendments

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “As used in this subsection, the term” for “For purposes of this subsection,” in paragraph (b)(1).

Code Commission notes

Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1985, “subsection” was substituted for “Code section” in paragraph (a)(3) and “Chapter” was substituted for “Chapters” in paragraph (b)(1). Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2002, subsection (d) as enacted by Ga. L. 2002, p. 1386, § 10 was redesignated as paragraph (a)(4), “and” was deleted from the end of paragraph (a)(2) and “; and” was substituted for a period at the end of (a)(3).

Cross references

Delivery to board of certain unclaimed bodies, § 31-21-21 et seq. Prohibition on minimum waiting periods for initiating missing person report, § 35-1-18.

Law reviews

For note on the 2002 amendment of this Code section, see 19 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 1 (2002). For article on the 2011 amendment of this Code section, see 28 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 147 (2011).

Read the official page (the state's PDF, opened at the page this text was read from).

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia.

Text read from t35-t36-ch1-59-(v27)-2025-pdf.pdf, Volume V27, 2025 edition, pages 28 to 30; merge action: bound only; file SHA-256 6c7b6bcea397.

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