February 22, 2012

You are here: Home / Archives for Law Enforcement

Sex abuse reporting law change hits hurdle (AUDIO)

February 21, 2012 By

A proposed law based on the Penn State child sex abuse scandal runs into suggestions it might be overkill.  Senator Eric Schmitt of Kirkwood thinks the witness to the child sex abuse at Penn State should have called police, not reported the incident to higher-ups at the school.  His bill makes anybody a mandated reporter. .

But critics say the issue more complicated than that—that a parent or guardian might not report because an offending child needs treatment more than prosecution, or because a parent reporting might lose custody of the child…

Smithville Senator LuAnn Ridgeway says the bill creates inconsistent law—putting someone in jail for a year for failing to report child sex abuse while not punishing someone who sees a child murdered and doesn’t report it..

Schmitt can’t get his bill to a vote. He’ll be able to try again later.

AUDIO: Floor debate 1;19:24

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Featured, Human Interest, Law Enforcement, News

Senate moves to solve dilemma zone (AUDIO)

February 20, 2012 By

Drivers nearing an intersection often run into a dilemma zone … when the light turns yellow and the motorist has to decide if there’s time to go through or whether to stop. The state senate has passed a proposed law making those dilemma zones uniform throughout Missouri.

St. Louis Senator Jim Lembke, a devoted opponent of red-light cameras, suspects some cities that use those cameras manipulate yellow light intervals to write more tickets at those intersections. He says studies show the dilemma zone can be addressed by adding less than a second on the yellow light time. Shortening those times makes the intersections more dangerous.

The solution is to have the state transportation department establish a minimum yellow-light time at all intersections with signals. He says a Texas Department of Transportation study shows that a one second reduction of yellow-light time increased red light camera violations issued by 110 percent. He says the same study also finds that using a uniform formula cuts intersection crashes by 40 percent. 

Lembke says the city of Arnold, which uses red-light cameras, reduced the number of tickets at those intersections by 90 percent by adopting the uniform yellow-light intervals. 

Lembke’s bill has been given the green light by the Senate, which has sent the bill to the House.

 AUDIO: Lembke in Senate (:43)

 

Filed Under: Featured, Law Enforcement, News, Transportation

Red light camera bill stops in senate (AUDIO)

February 9, 2012 By

A  state senator runs into a red light with his bill keeping cities from profiting from red light cameras. 

Cameras that catch people ignoring the stop lights at busy intersections are in several Missouri cities.  The jury is out on whether they make previously-dangerous intersections safer. Some state lawmakers question whether cities really are interested in safer intersections or just interested in getting more money from red light-running motorists.

Senator Will Kraus wants fines from red light cameras to go to local school districts. If cities really are installing the cameras for safety reasons, he says, they should not profit from them. 

But University City Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal sees nothing wrong with cities using the cameras to raise money…”There are certain expenses that you have, ” she notes. But she says most municipalities are pinched for money and the cameras help produce it.

Other opponents say schools would not really benefit because state law says state aid to districts is reduced by the amount of traffic fines that are earmarked for local districts.

Opponents have talked long enough to bring Kraus’ bill to a complete stop.

AUDIO: debate 54:33

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Finance, Human Interest, Law Enforcement, News

Bill offers chance for offenders to keep records from potential employers

February 7, 2012 By

Legislation has advanced out of the House Committee on Urban Issues that seeks to give some non-violent offenders some help in getting a job, to keep them from repeat offending. 

Representative Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis)

Representative Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis) says she has sponsored the bill for five years and this is the first time it has advanced out of a committee. She says her goal is, “To be able to not allow for employers to look at non-violent offenses as an obstacle to employment opportunities. I would also like to allow for law enforcement to continue to have access to those records.”

Under the proposal, non-violent offenders who have not committed additional crimes for five years after release can ask a judge to keep their criminal records from being accessible to potential employers.  The judge  can determine whether certain criteria have been met and then decide whether or not to grant the request.

Nasheed says right now, such individuals return to crime when they are turned away for employment because of their history. “They go out and they wreak havoc in our communities. They start selling drugs on our street corners. They start breaking into the homes and cars trying just to survive.”

She says without some way to break that cycle, the state will have to deal with such individuals at one point or another. “Either we’re going to deal with it on the front end or we’re going to deal with it on the back end. We’re going to house them in prison or we’re going to allow for them to have job opportunities after coming home from prison.

See the details of HB 1344

Nasheed is not discouraged that the bill has taken so long to advance. She notes, Illinois took seven years to pass similar language, which it is just now implementing.

The bill moves on to the House Rules Committee, and from there could advance to the House Calendar.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Law Enforcement, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Bill would require ‘pings’ of missing persons’ cell phones

February 3, 2012 By

A House Committee has heard testimony on a bill that would clear the way for cell phone companies to provide cell phone location information to law enforcement in certain missing persons cases.

Greg and Missey Smith call the bill "Kelsey Smith's law," for their daughter (pictured).

The language of House Bill 1108 has been introduced three previous times in Missouri, and has been passed out of the House but never out of the Senate. It would require companies to locate, or “ping” a cell phone, when law enforcement requests that information in emergencies in which a missing person is in danger of serious physical injury or death. It also protects cell phone companies from being sued for providing that information under the guidelines of the bill.

Missey Smith has advocated for the bill each time. “It’s time that this gets changed.”

Missey and her husband, Greg Smith, are proponents of the bill commonly named for their daughter Kelsey, who was kidnapped from Overland Park, Kansas and found murdered in southern Jackson County in 2007.

Greg, now a legislator in Kansas, says if such language had been law then Kelsey might have been saved. “June 2, 2007 was the night she went missing and she was found four days later … Once that information was released by the cell phone company it only took forty-five minutes to recover her body.” A former police officer, he adds, “If you can get that kind of response in a missing person case, that’s just absolutely light years ahead of what we’re doing right now.”

Missey says the bill changes one component of current law. “They may turn this information over already. So, they’ve already got all of this in place. The Kelsey Smith Act, or this legislation, states they will. That’s the difference. It goes from ‘may’ to ‘shall.’”

No one testified against the bill in the hearing of the House Committee on Utilities.

Learn more about the effort to remember Kelsey, and pass the law named for her.

Missey says it is frustrating the bill has not become law yet, and its sponsor agrees.

This is the first year Representative Jeanie Lauer (R-Blue Springs) has carried the language. “We have history and tracking that shows that this legislation is great, it’s in other states and it is time for Missouri to step up to the plate.”

The bill is currently law in Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, New Hampshire and North Dakota. It is being considered this year in Hawaii and the Smiths say it could be taken up later this year in Massachusetts and Illinois. The Smiths says they know of two cases in the states where the law has passed in which cell phone location information has led to the safe recovery of a missing person.

Missy says she will be back in Missouri as needed to push for the bill to become law this year. “Whatever it takes to get it done.”

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Featured, Human Interest, Law Enforcement, Legislature, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts