Arizona Missing Children

A missing child in Arizona is reported to the local police or county sheriff, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety runs the state's AMBER Alert plan and coordinates missing person cases through its Criminal Investigations Division. Arizona's border with Mexico and its large tribal nations add two layers: the Border Patrol and Mexican authorities are notified when a child may have crossed, and the Navajo Nation, the Tohono O'odham Nation and other tribal police handle cases on their land with the FBI.

Arizona has no waiting period to report a missing child, and federal law requires entry into the national database within two hours.

Official sources on this page were checked on September 25, 2026.

• Arizona AlertsMissing Children Alerts
• Missing children from Arizona, NCMECNCMEC case search for children missing from Arizona
• Arizona Amber Alert
• What To Do If Your Child Is MissingMissing Children Assistance
• Family Advocacy Services
• Report a Sighting of a Missing Child
• Arizona Attorney General Code Adam

Arizona's AMBER Alert plan is run by the Department of Public Safety with the Arizona Broadcasters Association. The investigating agency requests activation when a child under 18 has been abducted, is in danger of serious harm and enough information exists to help the public. DPS sends the alert to broadcasters, the wireless emergency alert system, freeway message signs run by the Department of Transportation and social media, and it notifies the Border Patrol and Sonoran authorities when a vehicle may be headed for Mexico.

• Arizona Department of Public Safety AMBER AlertArizona's AMBER Alert plan and active alerts

Arizona's missing person clearinghouse function sits within the Department of Public Safety, which maintains the state's missing persons listings and coordinates with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on child cases. Start with the local police or the county sheriff and get the case number, then check that the child is in the National Crime Information Center, which every police agency in the country can see, and make the next call to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the Phoenix Police Department each run missing persons units for the state's largest population center.

• Arizona Department of Public Safety missing personsStatewide missing persons information and DPS investigations
• Arizona Police DepartmentsCity police departments that take missing child reports
• Arizona County Sheriff DirectorySheriff offices for all 15 counties
• Arizona Most WantedFugitives and outstanding warrants

Arizona issues Silver Alerts for missing seniors and adults with cognitive impairment and Blue Alerts for suspects who have harmed an officer through the same DPS system, and the state's 2019 law created a study committee on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls whose recommendations shape tribal case coordination. Case records stay with the investigating agency and can be withheld while the investigation is active under Arizona's public records law, while the missing person listing itself is public. A case that stays open can be entered in NamUs, the national missing persons database, by the investigating agency, and the public can search the entries the agency approves for publication.

• NamUsNational database of missing and unidentified persons
• Arizona Criminal RecordsCriminal history and court records in Arizona

• National Center for Missing & Exploited ChildrenMissing child posters, reports and the CyberTipline
• AMBER Alert, U.S. Department of JusticeHow AMBER Alerts work and who issues them
• NISMART, national studies of missing childrenDepartment of Justice research on missing children