California Lawmaker Proposes ‘Ebony Alert’ Notification for Black Youth

State Sen. Steven Bradford attends an event in Culver City, Calif., on November 7, 2019. Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images for MedMen

California state Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) has introduced legislation to create an “Ebony Alert” notification system for police to notify the public when black youth between 12 and 25 years old go missing.

Senate Bill 673 (SB 673), which is being discussed in the Senate Rules Committee this month, would bring more attention to black children and young black women missing in California, Bradford said.

“The Ebony Alert would ensure that resources and attention are given so we can bring home missing Black women and Black children in the same way we would search for any missing child and missing person,” Bradford said in a March 23 release.

Bradford said black children are disproportionately classified as “runaways,” while more white youth are classified as “missing,” and many of those black children don’t receive the Amber Alert.

The bill would authorize a law enforcement agency to request an Ebony Alert be activated if that agency finds it would be an effective tool, according to Bradford’s office.

Much like the national Amber Alert program, this system would encourage news organizations including television, cable, online, radio, and social media outlets to cooperate in disseminating the information.

The legislation is sponsored by the NAACP California Hawaii conference, a regional chapter of the national civil rights and social justice organization.

“Black women and girls are at increased risk of harm and make up a disproportionate percentage of all missing people. The NAACP California Hawaii State Conference considers missing Black women and girls an epidemic and necessary for its own safety alert,” Rick Callender, NAACP California Hawaii State Conference president, said in a statement.

In the United States, 521,705 people were reported missing in 2021, according to the National Crime Information Center. Of those, about 34 percent were black. Census data show the black population in the United States is about 14 percent.

Last year, California created a similar program called the “Feather Alert” system. The public alerts can be used by law enforcement agencies investigating suspicious or unexplained disappearances of indigenous people.