Contact: Erika Martinez
(505) 986-4263
Erika.Martinez@nmlegis.gov
OR
Contact Lindsey Miller
(505) 436-8364
lindsey.miller@nmlegis.gov.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2015
Senator Jacob Candelaria Introduces Bill to Create the Brittany Alert to Assist in Finding Missing Individuals with Physical and Mental Disabilities
Santa Fe, NM – Today, Senator Jacob Candelaria (D-26-Bernalillo) introduced Senate Bill 278 to create the Brittany Alert. Similar to the Silver Alert, the Brittany Alert creates a notification system for law enforcement when an individual with severe physical, mental or developmental disabilities goes missing.
“I introduced the Brittany Alert to provide law enforcement an important tool to protect some of our state’s most vulnerable residents,” Sen. Candelaria said. “We need a system to ensure that if a developmentally disabled New Mexican is missing, law enforcement and our communities can respond as quickly as possible to bring them home safely.”
Sen. Candelaria was inspired to carry the bill after Brittany Redford-Gonzales, a developmentally disabled 25-year-old, who has the intellectual capacity of an 11 year old, disappeared this year for 18 days. She was finally found nearly 200 miles from home with an ex-boyfriend. Brittany’s family and friends panicked, saying they worried that her innocence and vulnerability stemming from her disability would be exploited. The family said they encountered significant difficulty in attracting attention to her disappearance in the absence of a state wide alert system.
“Eighteen days of not knowing where Brittany was or whether she was safe, was torment for her family,” Sen. Candelaria said. “We need to do anything we can to make it faster and easier to locate the missing and endangered so other families don’t have to experience this agony. The Brittany Alert will help keep safe those New Mexicans who need extra protection, particularly from those who try to take advantage of them.”
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