Bill to require study of Black missing women and children

LINCOLN, Neb — Legislative Bill 751 would authorize a study to improve the reporting and investigation of Black missing women and children.

Black people make up less than 6% of Nebraska’s population, yet cases of missing Black women and children have numbered in the hundreds for years.

Omaha Democratic Sen. Ashlei Spivey introduced the bill and said there were 850 cases in 2024, most of which are likely to go unresolved, "we don't know what happened to those women and children, where they found? Where they harmed? was it due to domestic violence sex trafficking for they to actually run away? How do we categorize that?"

Spivey said she was inspired by speaking with families who have been personally impacted by the issue. "When someone goes missing, and you don't have the answers and you're one enclosure, you want to find them. That is traumatic for the family and the community," Spivey said. 

She said a landmark 2019 study examined the high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the state, serving as an important policy breakthrough that helped lay the groundwork for her bill.

The legislation is currently on General File.