A bill aimed at addressing a shortage of law enforcement officers has advanced through a House committee.
Representative Lane Roberts (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
House Bill 1703 is sponsored by Representative Lane Roberts (R-Joplin), who was a chief of police in multiple communities including Joplin and is a past director of the Department of Public Safety. He said before a person can apply for employment as a law enforcement officer in Missouri they must first have their license.
Roberts’ bill would create the “Peace Officer Basic Training Tuition Reimbursement Program.” This would pay back individuals for that training over a period of four years if they find a law enforcement job and retain it for four years.
Roberts told the Committee on Crime Prevention his bill aims to make the potential cost of training less of a barrier, particular for two groups of people he hopes to incent toward pursuing law enforcement careers.
HB 1703 would also require that law enforcement instructors and their curriculum be approved by the Department of Public Safety. This stemmed from an amendment offered by Representative Kevin Windham (D-Hillsdale) to last year’s version of the legislation. Windham said it was in answer to something that happened in St. Louis County.
Representative Kevin Windham (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Last year’s version the legislation was approved by the House 152-1 but it stalled in the Senate. HB 1703 has been approved by the Crime Prevention committee and needs one more committee’s action before going to the full House.
Anyone exonerated of a crime in Missouri would be eligible for restitution under a plan that has been advanced by a House committee.
Representatives Ron Hicks (left) and Shamed Dogan (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Missouri law allows anyone freed from prison based on DNA evidence to receive restitution. House Bills 2412 and 2474 would allow those exonerated by any other proof to receive up to $100 a day, up to $36,500 per fiscal year.
Missouri’s restitution statute drew attention following the release late last year of Kevin Strickland, who spent 42 years in prison for a crime of which he was cleared but not by DNA evidence.
Many members expressed support for the proposal, but brought up things they’d like to see added.
Kansas City Democrat Ashley Aune said she wants to see an addition to the bill to ensure exonerees are provided with assistance upon release, in areas like housing and healthcare.
Columbia representative David Smith (D) was the only vote against the bill. He opposed it because it would prohibit exonerees from taking the state to court if they receive restitution under this plan.
U.S. veterans who were part of the military’s nuclear testing programs or the follow-up to the use of nuclear weapons would be honored by a bill moving through the House.
Representative Bob Bromley (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Representative Bob Bromley (R-Carl Junction) says as many as 400,000 American military personnel were exposed in one way or another to nuclear radiation, but for decades they couldn’t talk about it.
House Bill 1652 would designate part of Highway 171 the “Atomic Veterans Memorial Highway.” Bromley said many other states have so honored this group of veterans and its important that Missouri follow suit, especially as so many of them are elderly or have already passed on.
Lovasco’s proposal, House Bill 1613, would block Missouri law enforcement and prosecutors from transferring seized property to federal authorities. It would also stipulate that federal authorities working with authorities in Missouri must give responsibility for seized property to a state entity.
The bill would apply to seizures including less than $100,000 in U.S. currency. Lovasco explained this was a compromise with law enforcement, who told him that most cases involving that amount of money or more are tied to drug trafficking. He said he doesn’t like this limit but it will make the bill more appealing to some lawmakers.
The plan has bipartisan appeal including from Peter Merideth (St. Louis), the committee’s top Democrat. He told Lovasco he strongly agrees with the proposal but he also doesn’t like that $100,000 cap.
Lovasco said nationwide, the median amount of money that has been seized by authorities is less than $1,300. In Missouri the number is higher, but he argues that in most cases money has been seized from people who aren’t involved in crime at all.
He showed his colleagues a blank Uniform Vehicle Stop Report which includes check boxes for listing contraband that is discovered.
The only opposition to the bill voiced in the hearing came from St. Charles County. Lobbying on behalf of the County, Michael Gibbons said the county’s prosecutors and others believe such asset forfeiture is an effective tool in fighting drug trafficking. He maintains it is done in St. Charles County without abuses described by Lovasco and other backers.
A bill aimed at teaching children how to critically consider today’s constant stream of information and to be safe online has been presented to a House committee.
Representative Jim Murphy (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
St. Louis Republican representative Jim Murphy has proposed House Bill 1585, the “Show-Me Digital Health Act.” It would instruct the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to create a curriculum on the “responsible use of social media.”
Murphy said children are exposed to information from numerous sources and mediums, and often legislators discuss how to regulate that information.
The Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education heard from Julie Smith, an instructor at Webster University in St. Louis who has authored books and offered numerous presentations on media literacy and news analysis. She said “digital citizenship” is the term that’s been used for teaching children how to behave online. She said Murphy’s bill would expand on the basics of “digital citizenship,” which tends to focus on being “nice” online.
She said a new curriculum would encourage children to read the terms of service for the websites and apps that they use and educate them about laws governing internet use; how websites and apps are designed to keep them online and make money off of them; how to spot and deal with fake accounts; and how to cope with anxieties and depression related to an online presence.
The committee’s top Democrat, Paula Brown of Hazelwood, is a retired teacher with 31 years of experience. She expressed concerns about adding to the already extensive curriculum from which teachers are expected to work.
Brown said she would talk further with Smith about that, and would do further research into her concern about what additional cost the bill might create for individual school districts.
University of Missouri freshman William Wehmer said he believes as someone who just finished his K-12 education Murphy’s proposal is “much needed.”
The bill’s supporters include the Missouri School Boards Association and the Missouri Broadcasters Association. Mark Gordon with the Broadcasters Association said its member radio and television stations think the bill would support their work on social media.
The House Judiciary Committee heard that the program has been used in numerous other states, in some cases for decades. In those cases it has led to better outcomes for mothers and children and reduced recidivism among mothers. These and other factors have also saved money for those states.
The committee heard from Maggie Burke, who was a warden at a prison with a nursery, in Illinois. She assured the committee that these programs do work, and that Missouri should adopt one.
Representatives of the Department of Corrections told the committee that in anticipation of this proposal, they traveled recently to Indiana and viewed a prison nursery program there. They said they came away with ideas that could be utilized in Missouri, and suggestions for tweaks to the legislation filed by DeGroot and Trent.
Maggie Burke, who was the warden at a prison in Illinois which had a nursery, testifies to the Missouri Judiciary Committee about that program.
Lawmakers heard that in other states, prison nurseries are supported largely by donations from private groups, and the same is considered likely to happen in Missouri. Burke said Illinois’ program was funded without any state dollars.
The bills propose that the nursery would be regulated by the Department of Corrections, though it could hand some responsibility to the Department of Health and Senior Services.
DeGroot wasn’t able to be at the hearing, which focused on his bill.
The definition of a “missing child” in Missouri law would include 17 year-olds under a proposal heard by a House committee this week.
Representative Bishop Davidson (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Republic representative Bishop Davidson (R) said he heard from a constituent about a 17 year-old who ran away from home and police could not act to retrieve her. He said her family felt she was in an unsafe and abusive situation, and noted that they still have responsibility for her care until she turns 18.
Several committee members thanked Davidson for opening the discussion. Shrewsbury Democrat Sarah Unsicker recently read about a 17 year-old who was dropped from the foster care system but was not emancipated, so among other things she could not enter into a contract such as a lease to find housing.
Representative Marlene Terry (D-St. Louis) asked Davidson about expanding his bill to specify that law enforcement search for such individuals, and what must be done in that search.
Representative Marlene Terry asks Rep. Bishop Davidson about his bill, as Representatives Hannah Kelly (light blazer) and Mary Elizabeth Coleman, Chair of the House Committee on Children and Families, listen. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Mountain Grove Republican Hannah Kelly said in her experience, much frustration for caseworkers comes from directives being handed down without understanding of what would be necessary for them to be met.
A House member wants the state to put more effort into finding family members with whom to place children who are taken into state custody, before placing them with strangers.
Representative Dave Griffith speaks with Alysa Jackson (left) and Sarah Bashore (right) with the Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Griffith’s House Bill 1563 would require the Division to make “diligent searches” for biological parents when a child enters state custody. In the case of an emergency placement, the Division would search for grandparents. If they can’t be found or aren’t fit, it would then look for other relatives for placement within 30 days.
Sarah Bashore with the Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association told the committee that her agency, serving 24 counties, helped find family members for 34 children in state care in the last two quarters of the last fiscal year. She said it could help even more children, but the Children’s Division hasn’t being asking.
She believes as employees with the Division leave and are replaced, those new hires simply don’t know that her agency and others like it are available, or how they can be used.
Bashore said her agency and others are simply more capable and have more resources than Children’s Division for doing the kinds of searches that Griffith’s bill would require, and with compelling results.
