Maui Council to consider resolution urging creation of a missing persons task force

The Maui County Council will consider a draft resolution this week, urging the creation of a statewide missing persons task force.

The resolution, introduced by West Maui Council Member Tamara Paltin, will be taken up at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Council Chambers by the Council’s Disaster, Resilience, International Affairs and Planning Committee, chaired by Paltin.

The committee meeting may also be viewed and public testimony offered via a Teams link at: http://tinyurl.com/DRIP-Committee.

The proposed task force would “consider improvements to legislation, policies and procedures and to raise public awareness to address the urgent problem of missing persons in the state,” according to the posted meeting agenda.

The resolution comes on the heels of some highly publicized missing person cases, including Maui resident Hannah Kobayashi, who went missing during a Los Angeles layover last month, but was later found safe, according to family members.

More recently, Maui police sought help locating Hollee Dela Cruz, 32, of Lahaina, who family members reported had not been heard from since Nov. 6 and had last been seen in the Wailuku area on Nov. 13.

The draft resolution references a December 2022 research study, “Holoianalo Wahine ‘Oiwi: Missing and Murdered Native Hawaiian Women and Girls Task Force Report (Part I).” It found a “critical need for more structured, systemic and streamlined data collection between government agencies” to protect Native Hawaiian women and girls from violence.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Person System’s website, there are 235 open cases of missing persons in the state of Hawai‘i.

The resolution also notes “an apparent lack of reliable data and coordinated communication on missing Native Hawaiian persons of any gender.”

And, it says the Maui Police Department has 40 people reported missing, with more Hawaiian men than women with their whereabouts unknown.

The draft resolution calls for a “focused, sufficiently resourced, multi-jurisdictional task force… to address the urgent problem of missing persons in Hawai’i.”

The task force could produce a readily accessible guide to provide the public with preventative advice and instructions to follow if a relative, friend or acquaintance is missing; and it could make recommendations to policymakers on best practices for missing persons, including reporting requirements and data collection.