Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart advocated for a new state law that makes major changes in the way police in Illinois are required to address missing persons reports. He launched the Missing Persons Project in 2021, a unit of his office dedicated to locating people who’ve been missing for three years or longer. Courtesy of Cook County Sheriff’s Office

You’ve probably seen it play out on a TV crime drama: A distraught person enters a police station to report a loved one missing, only to be told by the desk officer that there’s nothing they can do about it for at least 24 hours.

A new state law championed by a suburban legislator and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart will keep that scenario the stuff of fiction here in Illinois.

Senate Bill 24 — also known as the Missing Persons Identification A

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