Stranger abductions of children grab headlines and stir community concerns about safety like few other crimes. In reality, more children are abducted by parents or guardians -- an estimated 200,000 children annually -- and often violently.
Surprisingly, these abductors often claim the kidnapped children as dependents on their income taxes. As a result, that tax form may contain the most up-to-date address of the missing kids.
Current law prohibits the Internal Revenue Service from sharing that address with law enforcement, even though it could lead to a kidnapped child's rescue. This makes no sense, especially when rescue officials aren't asking for financial information or entire tax returns.
Legislation introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. -- the Access to Information About Missing Children Act -- seeks to give law enforcement access to critical location information, while protecting taxpayers' financial privacy.
The measure could help law enforcement rescue and protect kidnapped children. It also would create a means for local, state and federal crime solvers to pool resources in a timely and efficient way -- the kind of cooperation between government agencies that Americans want.
Presently, courts are the only recourse for obtaining these addresses. Too often judges are reluctant to order the data's release because, in family kidnappings, children are often taken across state lines, leaving no clear-cut jurisdiction.
"No one should be able to hide behind right to privacy claims when it means locating our abducted and missing children," Thea M. Pirnat, a Fairfax County, Va., police detective told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at a recent hearing.
She's right. At the same time, any law passed by Congress should be narrow and contain restrictive language to protect taxpayers' rights. For instance, law enforcement shouldn't be given open access to individuals' entire tax return, especially when financial information isn't relevant to solving abduction cases.
