Amends TCA Title 38, Chapter 6.

This bill renames the Care Alert program and requires the Tennessee bureau of investigation (TBI) to implement statewide protocols to assist in the locating of vulnerable, missing citizens, as described below. PRESENT LAW The present law Care Alert program encourages local law enforcement to develop area-specific protocols to quickly find a person who has wandered due to age, dementia, mental health condition, physical impairment or disability, or intellectual or developmental disability, herein referred to as a "missing citizen." Under the program, a local law enforcement agency is urged to begin an investigation immediately when it receives notice of the missing citizen and appropriate documentation of the citizen's physical or mental condition. Local law enforcement must also enter the report of missing citizen into the national crime information center (NICI) within four hours of the completion of the verification process. The Care Alert is sent to media outlets in this state at the discretion of the local law enforcement agency. THIS BILL This bill revises the program as follows: (1) Requires, rather than urges, a local law enforcement agency to begin an investigation immediately when an agency receives appropriate notice and documentation about a missing citizen. The agency must also notify the TBI within four hours of receiving the notice of the missing citizen; (2) Requires the TBI, in coordination with law enforcement agencies, to send the alert to designated media within 12 hours of the notification of the missing citizen; (3) Renames the program the Silver Alert program; (4) Authorizes the TBI, in addition to local law enforcement, to seek assistance from nonprofit organizations such as A Child is Missing or the Alzheimer's Association; (5) Requires the TBI to provide information and education on the Silver Alert statewide protocol to all law enforcement agencies in the state; and (6) Removes a provision encouraging the TBI to create a card similar to the AMBER Alert activation card tailored for missing citizens described above.