Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs Signs H.B. 2281 "Emily's Law", Establishing the Turquoise Alert System
Gila River Indian Community’s Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis joined Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, Tribal leaders, members of the state’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) task force, lawmakers, and law enforcement representatives for a signing ceremony of House Bill 2281 at the State Capitol on May 21.
“I’m so glad that we’re able to come together in a bipartisan way to pass common-sense legislation that will increase public safety,” Hobbs said. “We are here because the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people demands our full attention and collaboration; it demands action, and it demands solutions.”
H.B. 2281 is also referred to as “Emily’s Law” in honor of 14-year-old Emily Pike, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, who was murdered earlier this year. It establishes the Turquoise Alert System for missing and endangered Indigenous peoples under the age of 65 to provide rapid response for those who may fall out of the Amber and Silver Alerts criteria. The Turquoise Alert, a significant step towards improving public safety, will be ready to utilize by the end of the Summer.
“This alert system closes the jurisdictional and age-related gaps that sometimes led to delays in alerting state and local law enforcement and the general public when Native Americans, our relatives, are reported missing or are endangered,” Gov. Lewis said. “As we know from the success of the Amber Alert system, the sooner law enforcement and the public are alerted to potential danger, the stronger the likelihood that endangered individuals can return home safely; it’s a testament to the serious need for this law that we were able to pass this bill quickly and with unanimous support.”
Gov. Lewis thanked Rep. Teresa Martinez, who sponsored the bill, along with co-sponsors Brian Garcia, Mae Peshlakai, and Myron Tsosie, and hopes that this legislation will serve as a model for other states to take steps to protect tribal people within their borders. Currently, there are only four other states, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington, that have alerts for Indigenous people.
“While this bill was being considered in the state legislature, we learned of the senseless murder of this beautiful 14-year-old Emily Pike,” said Gov. Lewis. “This law won’t bring Emily back, but we hope that Emily’s Law – the Turquoise Alert System, will prevent another relative, another child, another teen, another family member, and another tribe from this same type of situation and loss.”
In January, Emily Pike was reported as a runaway from a Mesa group home where she was staying, and weeks later, on Feb. 14, her remains were found off Highway 60 near Globe, 100 miles from where she was last seen. The San Carlos Apache Tribe, Gila County Sheriff’s Office, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the FBI are working together to solve the crime.
Because Emily was labeled as a runaway, an Amber Alert was not issued. “She fell through the cracks of many systemic barriers,” said State Sen.Theresa Hatathile.
In March, The San Carlos Apache Tribe announced that they were offering a $75,000 award; the FBI also matched that award for any information identifying the individual(s) responsible for the disappearance and murder of Emily Pike.
During the signing ceremony, Hobbs also announced that the state would contribute $25,000 towards the reward for information in the disappearance and murder of Emily Pike, making a combined total of $175,000.
The family of Emily Pike was also in attendance for the signing ceremony. “It’s a good thing that an alert is here for all of Indian Country, but the hard part is that it’s named after my brother and Steff’s daughter, and she’s not here no more,” said Allred Pike Jr., Emily’s uncle. “It’s hard to be here, but at the same time, we understand that we have to move forward… and Emily’s Law is a step in the right direction. We just don’t want this to happen to anyone else out there.”
Hobbs noted that the MMIP crisis has been a priority for her administration.
Within her first months as governor, she signed an executive order creating the MMIP task force to evaluate the recommendations from the legislative study committee on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established a new ‘Missing Endangered Persons’ (MEP) Emergency Alert System (EAS) code that will be effective later this year to help locate missing and endangered persons, including Indigenous persons, by expanding the types of critical alert messages that can be delivered to the public over television, radio, and wireless phones.
In 2023, more than 188,000 people went missing and fell outside of the criteria for AMBER alerts, according to the FCC. The new MEP code will enable a more rapid and coordinated response by allowing alert originators to use the EAS and WEA to issue a broader range of alerts to spread the word about missing persons.
“This issue isn’t new to Indian Country. This isn’t new to tribes. We’ve been dealing with these unresolved, unsolved murders of our people, our women, our children, our most valuable population,” said Sunshine Manuel, GRIC Judge. “So this was a great achievement for all of us. All of the advocates, all of those partners that we have, and especially the families that have been impacted by those that go missing and murdered.”
Manual was among those who created GRIC’s first MMIP response team to address these very issues. The MMIP response team includes the Community’s Office of General Counsel, Gila River Police Department, Tribal Social Services, Crime Victim Services, Behavioral Health, and more.
“When we talk about when someone’s identified as a runaway and it is a reality that the response is different, which is why we consider our runaways missing. So we do have the immediate responses when it comes to somebody who has been identified as missing,” said Manuel. “I think that everywhere else and every other jurisdiction needs to identify that that is a gap that we have.”