Project Jason

Published Wednesday, February 4, 2004

Bill to Create State Database On Missing Persons Hits Snag

BY LESLIE REED
World Herald Staff Bureau

LINCOLN - Has anybody seen Jason Jolkowski?

His mother wants more people to watch for him and for the other Nebraskans who disappear every year.

Jason A. Jolkowski

Height: About 6' 1"
Weight: 165 pounds.
Age: He would be 22
Features: Brown hair and brown eyes. Last seen wearing black dress pants and black dress shoes, a white Chicago Cubs or Sammy Sosa shirt and a blue Chicago Cubs hat.
Help: Anyone with information about Jason is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (402) 444-STOP.

"Families of missing people deserve help, and there's no help for them in the State of Nebraska," Kelly Jolkowski said.

Jason Jolkowski, then 19, was last seen by his family when he left his home in Omaha's Benson neighborhood for work in June 2001.

Kelly Jolkowski wants the Legislature to pass a law that would require the Nebraska State Patrol to maintain a clearinghouse of information, including an Internet Web site, about missing people in Nebraska. She figures that if more people see Jason's photo, it's more likely that someone will spot him.

The measure is patterned after a similar requirement in Iowa, Jolkowski said.

But Legislative Bill 203 appears stalled in committee. It received only two favorable votes in the Judiciary Committee last week. The remaining six members indicated that they were too uncertain about the measure.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, for example, abstained from voting. He said he didn't have enough information about the measure, which was discussed at a public hearing nearly a year ago.

Sen. Mark Quandahl of Omaha voted against it.

"It wasn't that I was unalterably opposed to the idea," he said. "But the logistics of putting it together, I wasn't convinced we were ready to do it."

The State Patrol has estimated that it would cost nearly $50,000 - mostly the expense of hiring a staff person - to establish and maintain the database.

Sen. Pat Bourne of Omaha, LB 203's sponsor, isn't giving up. He said he planned to ask the Judiciary Committee to reconsider the bill. Although the bill has not been given priority status this year, Bourne said he is hopeful that the measure could win passage, perhaps as an amendment to related legislation.

"I need to remind people about the importance of the bill and how it would affect people like the Jolkowskis," he said.

Nationally, 850,000 people a year disappear, with an average of 97,000 cases under investigation at any given time, according to Jolkowski. About half the cases involve children. In Omaha, police listed 1,850 people missing as of last October, 271 of them adults.

LB 203 would make several improvements to the system, Jolkowski said. For one thing, it would impose a uniform reporting system, so authorities could collect better statistics on how many people are missing. It also would provide better information to families and training to law enforcement.

"Nobody knows how big an issue this is," Jolkowski said. "Things fall through the cracks. Families aren't told to get vital pieces of information that could help them solve the case."

For example, the Legislature recently advanced a bill requiring the State Patrol to keep DNA information on missing people. Jolkowski didn't know that was possible when her son disappeared.

"Nobody told me to get his toothbrush or his comb," she said, "and by the time I knew, it was too late."