Our Opinion: Bills would benefit crime victims

Two bills heard in by a state Senate committee at the Capitol this week would benefit the state's criminal justice system in general and crime victims in particular.

In Tuesday's News Tribune, we reported that one bill, sponsored by Sen. Kiki Curls, D-Kansas City, would make it easier for law enforcement to investigate child abuse cases that cross state lines.

It would clarify the Department of Family Services' Children's Services Division may investigate if either the child or the alleged perpetrator lives in Missouri, can be found in Missouri or if the incident occurred in Missouri.

Curls said the case of Adrian Jones proves the need for cooperation on child abuse investigations involving multiple states. Jones was a 7-year-old boy who was abused, tortured, starved and eventually killed by his parents, who then fed his body to the pigs on their property.

Between investigators in Missouri and Kansas, she said, there were more than 2,000 pages of documentation, because Jones' transient family moved between the two states several times.

Like Curls said, such cases make it difficult for departments to determine jurisdiction, and disrupt the continuity of the investigation.

Even though investigators in both states did share some of the information they had developed in the Jones case, Caitlin Whaley of the Social Service Department testified: "We really think that this is a critical piece to give us better ability to communicate with other state partners, on a number of different levels to keep children safe."

Another bill, sponsored by Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, would allow local prosecutors to create domestic violence homicide panels. In cases of domestic violence fatalities, local prosecutors could establish the panels to determine what happened and what could have been done differently.

Representatives of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys spoke in support of the bill.

At the committee hearing, no one opposed either bill. Both bills would aid law enforcement, and Curls' bill could benefit child abuse victims directly, by leading law enforcement to their perpetrators more quickly.

Both bills deserve bipartisan support.