(a) The law enforcement agency taking or making a report of a missing child shall submit its report, together with any additional data reduced to writing in the form of statements or notes, to a judge of the juvenile court within a reasonable time.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 37-10-204

  • Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
  • Child: means any person under twenty-one (21) years of age. See Tennessee Code 37-10-201
  • Missing child: means a child who is believed to have been removed by force, persuasion, trick, enticement, false pretense, has voluntarily left the custody of such child's parent without permission or is absent for unexplained or unknown reasons. See Tennessee Code 37-10-201
  • Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) The judge shall review the report and information and determine whether or not there is probable cause to believe the child is a missing child.
(c)

(1) If a decision of “missing child” is made, a “missing child” order shall be issued and delivered to any lawful officer or the Tennessee bureau of investigation authorizing the bureau or any officer holding the order, a true copy thereof or possessing knowledge of the existence thereof, to investigate the circumstances relating to the missing child in compliance with existing constitutional, statutory and case law and upon identification or location of the missing child to take custody of the child, using legal process when necessary, for immediate delivery to a judge of any juvenile or other court of record for appropriate orders and disposition pursuant to law.
(2) If probable cause for issuance of a “missing child” order is not found, the judge shall so order and the missing child report should be cancelled by the bureau, which shall give notice of the cancellation to all appropriate law enforcement agencies.
(d)

(1) If the court issues a “missing child” order pursuant to this section and believes that certain telephone records are necessary to or would be of assistance in locating such child, the court may send a copy of the “missing child” order and a written request for any telephone records the court believes to be pertinent to the missing child who is the subject of the order to any telecommunications service provider as defined in § 65-4-101. The request shall state with all reasonable specificity the precise telephone records requested and the reason such records are pertinent to locating the missing child.
(2) Upon receiving such a request, the telecommunications service provider shall, without delay and at no charge, supply the requested telephone records to the juvenile court judge issuing the request.
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