---
title: O.C.G.A. § 35-3-173. Director to be state-wide coordinator for alert system.
collection: code
id: 35-3-173
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 35-3-173 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/35-3-173
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/35-3-173.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/35-3-173/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t35-t36-ch1-59-(v27)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=66569db4_0#page=201
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/35-3.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/35-3-172.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/35-3-174.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS AND AGENCIES / GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION / ALERT SYSTEM FOR MISSING DISABLED ADULTS AND THE MEDICALLY ENDANGERED
---

# O.C.G.A. § 35-3-173. Director to be state-wide coordinator for alert system.

(a) The director is the state-wide coordinator of the alert system.

(b) The director shall adopt rules and issue directives as necessary to ensure proper implementation of the alert system. The rules and directives shall include instructions on the procedures for activating and deactivating the alert system.

(c) The director shall prescribe forms for use by local law enforcement agencies in requesting activation of the alert system.

(d) No rule or directive adopted by the director shall mandate a minimum waiting period before the alert system may be activated or a request by local law enforcement agencies may be submitted to the bureau; provided, however, that it shall remain within the discretion of the director, as provided in this article, whether the alert system shall be activated at the request of a local law enforcement agency.

(e) When making a determination whether to activate or whether to request the activation of a state-wide missing person alert system, both the director and the requesting local law enforcement agency shall take into consideration the known medical condition of the missing person if the medical condition may reasonably be considered a cause for the inability to locate such missing person. In so considering the medical condition of a missing person, particularly if such condition may be immediately life-threatening or incapacitating, the director or other authorized person and the requesting law enforcement official shall be authorized, within his or her discretion, to initiate and request, respectively, a state-wide endangered person advisory.

## History

Code 1981, § 38-3-113, enacted by Ga. L. 2006, p. 539, § 1/HB 728; Ga. L. 2007, p. 47, § 38/SB 103; Code 1981, § 35-3-173, as redesignated by Ga. L. 2008, p. 233, § 1/SB 202; Ga. L. 2014, p. 704, § 3/SB 23.

## Editor's Notes

Ga. L. 2014, p. 704, § 1/SB 23, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Stacey Nicole English Act.’”