DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS) relaunched its Missing Person Information Clearinghouse website, which hosts information about the more than 300 people currently missing in the state.
Joy VanLandschoot is an advocate with Mollie's Movement: Finding Others, which she described as an organization helping families find their loved ones by "getting the word out there...getting the image out there....just helping people keep engaged, and not giving up on anybody."
First-hand experience with high-profile cases like those of Brooklyn resident Mollie Tibbets and Montezuma boy Xavior Harrelson has taught her the value of robust online resources.
"I think getting that information up as fast as they can is always important...where they're located, where the person went missing from," VanLandschoot said.
The hope is that the new missing persons website will be more helpful in reuniting and educating families.
"It just wasn't user-friendly anymore at that point, and so we decided that we needed to revamp the website," said Medina Rahmanovic, manager of the Missing Person Information Clearinghouse.
The new site, according to Rahmanovic, offers improvements to the user interface, advanced search options, the ability to share information directly to social media and the option print fliers of a missing person.
"We have cell phone safety, internet safety, anything that you may think of that might help you keep your child safe, can be found on that public website," Rahmanovic said.
But there is still a gap. Most of the 300-400 reports on the website don't have a picture.
"We rely on the local PD and sheriff's office who takes that report locally to ask the families for that photograph," said Rahmanovic. "In the moment, maybe it's forgotten, maybe the parent forgets to offer that photograph."
VanLandschoot said the onus to get that photo onto the site should fall on law enforcement.
"I don't want to see the responsibility of an image missing from the website being put or blamed on the families of the missing because they're brand new at this," she said. "They're navigating something they've never experienced in their lives.
Community members can share photos of missing people with the DPS by emailing mpicinfo@dps.state.ia.us.
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