Senate Codes Committee advances new adult "teal" missing-person alert; most criminal-justice bills fail to advance

At a Monday meeting of the New York State Senate Standing Committee on Codes, the committee voted to refer Senate Print 143 — a proposal to create a coordinated adult "teal" alert for missing adults ages 18–65 — to the Senate Committee on Social Services, while several other criminal-justice bills on bail, pretrial custody and vehicular offenses failed to advance out of committee.

The teal-alert bill, sponsored as Senate Print 143, was presented to the committee as a system modeled on existing Amber and Silver alert infrastructure to notify law enforcement and the public when an adult is reported missing and when law enforcement has had recent contact with the person. The sponsor said the proposal would use existing communications infrastructure and would have virtually no fiscal impact. The committee moved the bill for referral to the Committee on Social Services.

The meeting spent substantial time on bills that would alter bail and pretrial detention rules. Several high-profile measures — including proposals to restore judicial discretion to consider dangerousness in bail decisions and a separate Pretrial Risk Overview (the "Protect Act") that would require standardized risk assessment forms — did not receive the votes needed to move forward. Committee voting sheets recorded repeated tallies of 4 in the affirmative and 9 in the negative on multiple bills, and one bill received a 5–8 split.

Votes at a glance (by Senate Print number):

- Senate Print 143 (sponsor: Colombo). Establishes a coordinated law-enforcement adult "teal" alert for missing adults. Motion moved by Senator O'Mara and seconded by Senator Salazar; committee action: referred to the Committee on…