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Senate Panel OKs Public Safety Bills

Police learning of a missing minor or dependent adult will be able to get to work immediately tracking him or her down if a bill discussed Monday by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Justice and Public Safety is given final approval by the Legislature.

The Missing Minors and Dependent Adult Act [30-494] was one of three measures approved by the committee Monday during a meeting at the Earle B. Ottley Legislative Hall on St. Thomas. The meeting was recessed earlier than scheduled so that senators could take part in a Government House meeting on the potential sale of Hovensa (See Atlantic Basin Refining Buys Hovensa).

The other two measures approved involved turning a block of Frederiksted’s Strand Street into a one-way street [30-0517], and making it a misdemeanor to make or sell fake a driver’s license or Identification card [30-0288].

According to the Missing Minors and Dependent Adult Act, which is sponsored by Sen. Diane Capehart, the V.I. Police Department policy requires that when a person is reported missing, 24 hours must elapse before the department is required to launch an investigation. But current belief is the first few hours after a person is reported missing are critical in finding the person unharmed.

The bill would cancel that previous policy.

Human Services Commissioner Christopher Finch and Assistant Police Commissioner Thomas Hannah, who both testified in favor of the bill, said the department does not now wait to launch an investigation, but agreed that the outdated policy should go.

The bill would apply to minors and to dependent adults, which means any person 18 years of age or over with a disability, including but not limited to autism, dementia and or Alzheimer’s and whether caused by illness, brain injury or age. Upon learning of a disappearance, police will immediately launch an investigation.

The bill also notes that statistics demonstrate that kidnapping usually receives the most attention and generates the most fear but that actually kidnapping represented a small fraction of the missing minors and dependent adults in the United States. Among minors, runaways account for the largest percentage of those reported missing.

Hannah said public education is needed along with the new policy to help make the police search more successful. Too often, he said, when people call police to report a missing child or dependent adult, they cannot tell police what the missing person was wearing, who they were last seen with, or who their friends are. Often when officers ask for a recent picture, the person reporting can’t provide one.

Finch suggested working changes to the sections of the bill detailing what police are to do once they have found the missing person, to make sure if the person legally responsible for the missing person can’t be found, the proper steps are taken. Those changes will be implemented in the bill when it reaches the Rules Committee, according to Sen. Kenneth Gittens, chairman of the committee.

The Homeland Security, Justice and Public Safety Committee passed on the bill to Rules on a vote of 4-0 with three absences. Voting yes were Gittens, Sens. Clarence Payne III, Tregenza Roach and Sammuel Sanes. Sens. Craig Barshinger, Judi Buckley and Alicia “Chucky” Hansen were absent.

The identification bill, sponsored by Sen. Sammuel Sanes, will make it a misdemeanor to manufacture or use a false drivers license or identification, including an otherwise legitimate ID that has been altered to change the name, age or other information. The offense would be punishable by a fine of as much as $500 and not more than six months imprisonment.

The bill passed by a vote of 3-1, with Payne, Sanes and Gittens voting yes, Roach voting no, and Barshinger, Buckley and Hansen absent.

Gittens sponsored the measure to make one block of Frederiksted’s Strand Street – between Hill and Market streets – a one-way street with traffic flowing north and parking allowed on the left side.

According to Gittens, the street is too narrow to allow two-way traffic with parking, and customers of businesses on that street, particularly the FirstBank branch office – find it difficult to walk and park in the area.

Gittens added that short-term parking would be available during business hours Monday through Friday to prevent nearby employees to occupy all the spaces. If the full Senate OKs the measure, it will go into effect 90 days after approval.

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