Mother Urges Cuomo To Sign Bill Requiring Police To Quickly File Missing-Persons Reports
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The New York state Legislature has passed a bill requiring all police departments to promptly file missing-persons reports regardless of someone's age.
Anita Fowler, the mother of the teen for whom the bill is named after, stood outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Manhattan office Monday to urge him to sign it, WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported.
Mother Urges Cuomo To Sign Bill Requiring Police To File Missing Persons Reports
Her only child, LaMont Dottin, a freshman at Queens College, disappeared in 1995. Because Dottin was 19, Fowler was prohibited from immediately filing a missing-persons report, she said.
His body was found in the East River six weeks later.
"They had his body all along, and they held his body in the city morgue for four months while I was fighting them, and then buried him in potter's field for four years while I was searching for him," Fowler said.
"LaMont's Law" would require police to take down a report for anyone regardless of age or race and enter it into a national registry.
State Assemblyman Charles Barron, D-Brooklyn, said police are less likely to search for missing people of color.
"So Gov. Cuomo, sign the bill so that within 24 hours, everybody -- no matter what race, age, gender -- everybody will be looked for immediately," Barron said.
Cuomo's office and the NYPD have not responded to requests for comment.
