§ 41502 — Morgan P. Hardiman Child Abduction And Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center

(a) Not later than 90 days after the October 30, 1998, the Attorney General shall establish within the Federal Bureau of Investigation a Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center to be known as the “Morgan P. Hardiman Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center” (in this section referred to as the “CASMIRC”). (b) The CASMIRC shall be managed by the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime of the Critical Incident Response Group of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (in this section referred to as the “NCAVC”), and by multidisciplinary resource teams in Federal Bureau of Investigation field offices, in order to provide investigative support through the coordination and provision of Federal law enforcement resources, training, and application of other multidisciplinary expertise, to assist Federal, State, and local authorities in matters involving child abductions, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicide, and serial murder across the country. The CASMIRC shall be co-located with the NCAVC. (c) The CASMIRC shall perform such duties as the Attorney General determines appropriate to carry out the purposes of the CASMIRC, including— (1) identifying, developing, researching, acquiring, and refining multidisciplinary information and specialities to provide for the most current expertise available to advance investigative knowledge and practices used in child abduction, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicide, and serial murder investigations; (2) providing advice and coordinating the application of current and emerging technical, forensic, and other Federal assistance to Federal, State, and local authorities in child abduction, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicide, and serial murder investigations; (3) providing investigative support, research findings, and violent crime analysis to Federal, State, and local authorities in child abduction, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicide, and serial murder investigations; (4) providing, if requested by a Federal, State, or local law enforcement agency, on site consultation and advice in child abduction, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicide and serial murder investigations; (5) coordinating the application of resources of pertinent Federal law enforcement agencies, and other Federal entities including, but not limited to, the United States Customs Service, the Secret Service, the Postal Inspection Service, and the United States Marshals Service, as appropriate, and with the concurrence of the agency head to support Federal, State, and local law enforcement involved in child abduction, mysterious disappearance of a child, child homicide, and serial murder investigations; (6) conducting ongoing research related to child abductions, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicides, and serial murder, including identification and investigative application of current and emerging technologies, identification of investigative searching technologies and methods for physically locating abducted children, investigative use of offender behavioral assessment and analysis concepts, gathering statistics and information necessary for case identification, trend analysis, and case linkages to advance the investigative effectiveness of outstanding abducted children cases, develop investigative systems to identify and track serious serial offenders that repeatedly victimize children for comparison to unsolved cases, and other investigative research pertinent to child abduction, mysterious disappearance of a child, child homicide, and serial murder covered in this section; (7) working under the NCAVC in coordination with the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the Department of Justice to provide appropriate training to Federal, State, and local law enforcement in matters regarding child abductions, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicides; and (8) establishing a centralized repository based upon case data reflecting child abductions, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicides and serial murder submitted by State and local agencies, and an automated system for the efficient collection, retrieval, analysis, and reporting of information regarding CASMIRC investigative resources, research, and requests for and provision of investigative support services. (1) The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall appoint the members of the CASMIRC. The CASMIRC shall be staffed with Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel and other necessary personnel selected for their expertise that would enable them to assist in the research, data collection, and analysis, and provision of investigative support in child abduction, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicide and serial murder investigations. The Director may, with concurrence of the appropriate State or local agency, also appoint State and local law enforcement personnel to work with the CASMIRC. (2) Each member of the CASMIRC (and each individual from any State or local law enforcement agency appointed to work with the CASMIRC) shall remain as an employee of that member’s or individual’s respective agency for all purposes (including the purpose of performance review), and service with the CASMIRC shall be without interruption or loss of civil service privilege or status and shall be on a nonreimbursable basis, except if appropriate to reimburse State and local law enforcement for overtime costs for an individual appointed to work with the resource team. Additionally, reimbursement of travel and per diem expenses will occur for State and local law enforcement participation in resident fellowship programs at the NCAVC when offered. (3) CASMIRC personnel, under the guidance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and in consultation with the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, shall develop a specialized course of instruction devoted to training members of the CASMIRC consistent with the purpose of this section. The CASMIRC shall also work with the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the Department of Justice to develop a course of instruction for State and local law enforcement personnel to facilitate the dissemination of the most current multidisciplinary expertise in the investigation of child abductions, mysterious disappearances of children, child homicides, and serial murder of children. (e) One year after the establishment of the CASMIRC, the Attorney General shall submit to Congress a report, which shall include— (1) a description of the goals and activities of the CASMIRC; and (2) information regarding— (A) the number and qualifications of the members appointed to the CASMIRC; (B) the provision of equipment, administrative support, and office space for the CASMIRC; and (C) the projected resource needs for the CASMIRC. (f) There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001.