Missing Persons Policy
1. REQUIREMENT
Under the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, all Colleges must have in place policies and procedures for handling missing students and persons.
2. DEFINITION
A missing student means any student of an institution who resides in a facility owned or operated by such institution and who is reported to such institution as missing from his or her residence. Warren County Community College does not own or operate resident facilities. As such this policy refers to a situation where a member of the College community seeks to report a missing person to the College for investigative purposes.
3. PROCEDURES
Anyone seeking to report a missing person should be directed to the Coordinator of Public Safety.
Once a missing person is reported, the Coordinator of Public Safety will undertake the following:
- Obtain information regarding the identity of the student or individual presumed missing, the person reporting the incident, the relationship of the person reporting the incident and the circumstances that caused the reporting person to file the report.
- Document such information in a College incident report.
- As appropriate, inquire with other officials at the College regarding the presumed missing person.
- Advise the reporting person that missing person reports must be filed with the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction where the student resides.
- Contact the law enforcement agency where the individual resides and advise them of the missing person report made to the College.
- Should the Coordinator of Public Safety believe that the missing individual may be in imminent threat of danger and/or the missing person is believed to have been last seen on the Warren County Community College campus, the Coordinator of Public Safety will contact the Washington Township Police and turn the issue over to their jurisdiction.
4. FERPA COMPLIANCE
Information sharing with police on missing persons will follow guidelines established under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
5. COMMUNICATIONS
In cases involving missing persons, law enforcement personnel are best situated to provide information to the media that is designed to elicit public assistance in the search for a missing person. Therefore, all communications regarding missing students will be handled by outside law enforcement.