Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office

Reports

Best Practices, Guidelines, Policies and Protocols for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives

In 2022, the MMIR Office partnered with Wilder Research to develop model protocols and best practice guidance for new and unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives. The report provides an overview of the federal- and state-level policy landscape, highlights best and emerging practices, describes current issues in Minnesota, and provides recommendations for addressing the MMIR injustice related to nine major themes:

Reporting and initial investigations of missing person cases
Communication and alert systems
Review and investigation of unresolved (“cold”) cases
Death investigation
Jurisdiction issues and government-to-government collaboration
Data issues
Victim and family services
Prevention
Media reporting

Read the full Wilder Research report.

Click this link or on the image to view the report roadmap.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's Task Force

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Task Force was created in September 2019 through unanimous bipartisan support from the Minnesota Legislature and was coordinated by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), Office of Justice Programs (OJP).

On behalf of DPS and the MMIW Task Force, Wilder Research, an independent research unit of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation conducted extensive research, including reviewing published articles, summarizing laws and policies, accessing relevant data points from state data systems, interviewing experts, and hearing public feedback during several open public comment sessions.

The Task Force met quarterly from September 2019 to December 2020 to hear presentations on key aspects of the systems that are involved in the MMIW injustice and deliberated extensively in subcommittees focused on systems, data, and community resources and drafted recommendations for the mandates contained within the MMIW Task Force Report submitted to the Minnesota Legislature in December 2021.