Navajo Technical University, a school based in Crownpoint, New Mexico, is building a new database designed to be a hub for documenting and tracking cases of missing and murdered Diné relatives. It will also support families affected by the crisis.
According to the Missing and Murdered Dine Relatives Task Force, which is working with the university on the project, the database will bring real-time updates and bridge the gap between families and agencies in cases of missing and murdered relatives.
Task force members say the current process for obtaining public data on missing persons through the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, is often delayed and incomplete, especially when tribal, state, and federal jurisdictions overlap.
The database will be hosted on tribal servers to protect sovereign data.
Navajo Technical University is also training Diné students in software engineering and data analysis as part of the project.
