1. A law enforcement agency shall accept every report of a missing child which is submitted to the agency, including, but not limited to, a report made by telephone. Upon receipt of such a report, the agency shall immediately conduct a preliminary investigation and classify the cause of the disappearance of the child as “runaway,” “abducted by the parent of the child,” “abducted by a stranger” or “cause of disappearance unknown,” and shall:

(a) Transmit all available information about the child to the Clearinghouse within 36 hours after the report is received;

(b) Immediately notify such persons and make such inquiries concerning the missing child as the agency deems necessary;

(c) Fully comply with the requirements of the National Child Search Assistance Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5779 and 5780; and

(d) Enter into the National Crime Information Center’s Missing Person File, as miscellaneous information, any person reasonably believed to have unlawfully abducted or detained the missing child, or aided or abetted the unlawful abduction or detention.

2. A law enforcement agency which has jurisdiction over the investigation of an abducted child and which has obtained a warrant for the arrest of a person suspected in the child’s disappearance or concealment shall immediately notify the National Crime Information Center for the entry into the Center’s Wanted Person File of identifying and descriptive information concerning:

(a) The suspect; and

(b) As miscellaneous information, the missing child.

The agency shall cross-reference information entered pursuant to this section with the National Crime Information Center’s Missing Person File.

3. After a report is filed, the law enforcement agency that received the initial report shall:

(a) Send to the child’s parent or guardian a request for certain identifying information regarding the child that the National Crime Information Center recommends be provided; and

(b) Ask the child’s parent or guardian to provide such identifying information regarding the child.

This subsection does not preclude the voluntary release of identifying information about the missing child by the parent or guardian of the child at any time.

4. The parent or guardian of a child reported as missing shall promptly notify the appropriate law enforcement agency if the child is found or returned. The law enforcement agency shall then transmit that fact to the National Crime Information Center and the Clearinghouse.

5. Nothing in this section requires a law enforcement agency to activate the Statewide Alert System for the Safe Return of Abducted Children created by NRS 432.340.

(Added to NRS by 1985, 2166; A 1989, 1994; 1991, 1420; 1993, 1375; 1995, 56; 1997, 1538; 2001, 2611; 2003, 395; 2009, 1844; 2015, 855)