HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — There are nearly 500 missing children in Virginia. Not all are covered under the Amber Alert—as we saw with Codi Bigsby, the four-year-old who was never found after being reported missing January 2022.
However, a House Bill, named in his honor was introduced recently and would help with those who fall through the cracks.
After Codi went missing, there was no Amber Alert issued, which upset many people. What they didn’t realize was that certain requirements must be met for an Amber Alert to be sent. And Hampton Del. A.C. Cordoza wants to help fix that.
“So, I remember my mother used to tell me back in her time that the entire community looked out for people’s children,” Cordoza said. “We kind of lost that in the digital age.”
Now, Cordoza wants to improve the solution for the digital age. He introduced the CODI Alert bill that would widen the parameters of what’s required to report a child missing.
The CODI Alert steps in, he says, where the Amber Alert falls short. For instance, an Amber Alert commonly deals with people witnessing the abduction of a child.
“This one can pretty much cover every missing child but runaways. It doesn’t necessarily only speak of ‘we’ve seen someone snatch a child,’” Cordoza said.
A CODI Alert also would allow law enforcement to trigger the alert right away—popping up on phones in a 10 mile radius of where the child lives and where they were last seen. Plus, every 10 minutes after that, the alert would be updated to include to a larger radius, making the alert, Cordoza said, much more effective.
“That’s the whole thing, we’re trying to save some children’s lives, get them back home with their families, make sure everyone goes home every day,” Cordoza said.
State Sen. Danny Diggs introduced this same bill in the Senate, where it has passed 40-0. Cordoza hopes the delegation can pass it soon. It could be law as soon as July 1.
The bill comes as the city of Hampton’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Leisure has said items on the Codi Bigsby memorial fence must come down by Feb. 5 or they will be thrown away.
