Missouri lawmaker advocates for new medical alert system amid legislative challenges
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Despite facing no opposition during a Missouri Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety hearing on a new bill to create a public alert system -- for missing individuals endangered by medical conditions -- the bill's sponsor is not confident it will be considered on the Senate floor.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Angela Walton Mosley (D-Florissant), would establish the Christian Taylor Ferguson Medical Alert System. Under SB 41 the CTF system would help locate missing individuals at risk due to a medical condition requiring urgent care, medication or treatment.
“These individuals would be our most vulnerable people,” Mosley said. “They are someone that has some type of condition that needs urgent attention. So, that's why it's very important to get in place."
The system would operate similarly to the AMBER Alert System. AMBER, which stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, was created in 1996 after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped while riding a bike and then murdered in Arlington Texas. Since its launch in October 1996 through December 2024, the AMBER Alert system has helped recover 1,221 missing children, with 195 rescued through wireless emergency alerts. There are currently 81 AMBER Alert plans in place across the United States.
The Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee held a hearing over the bill on Monday, and could soon vote on it. During the hearing, Theda Roxanne Wilson spoke in favor of the bill, which is named after her 9-year-old son who disappeared in St. Louis in 2003. His body was never found, however his father, Dawson Ferguson, was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence without parole. Her son was born with Citrullinemia, an autosomal recessive urea cycle disorder that causes ammonia and other toxic substances to accumulate in the blood.
“A lot of people didn't know that when my son went missing, that it really was him because of the circumstances. They remembered him walking and talking and moving like a typical child, even though he had a life-threatening disorder called central anemia,” Wilson said during a Feb. 10 hearing while holding up a photo of her son on her phone. “So if he could not get his medication within 24 to 48 hours, he could die. That's the reason why this bill is imperative.”
Wilson said during the hearing the difference between the CTF Medical Alert System and AMBER is that law enforcement has discretion on whether they want to issue an AMBER alert. However, with CTF alerts they would not have the same discretion.
“If my son needs his medication within 24 hours, he doesn't have time to go through the typical protocols that law enforcement may go through, Wilson explained during the hearing. “You don't have that kind of time to waste when you have a person with a life-threatening condition.”
If approved, the Department of Public Safety would create regional networks, coordinate with local law enforcement and media, and oversee implementation. Anyone who knowingly files a false report to trigger an alert will face a Class A misdemeanor.
Mosley said the bill received little opposition from the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee, which consists of five Republicans and two Democrats. However, Mosley told ABC 17 News that she is not confident any further action will occur because Republicans, who dominate the Missouri legislature, are primarily pushing bills from the right side of the aisle for consideration on the Senate floor.
“I don't really think that leadership is really trying to push the bill to be passed. I've had some staff members come to me and ask me to speak to maybe public safety and just put it in without a bill. The only type of pushback I've received so far. But no senators say they are struggling with it,” Mosley said. “In our calendar, it is mostly Republicans whose bills are being heard on the floor and whose bills are being passed.”
ABC 17 News reached out to each member of the committee, but as of Thursday afternoon, has yet to hear back.
