Tina Porter did a good job convincing Jackson County Prosecutor Jim Kanatzar about the importance of changing two state laws and procedures that would help protect children.
“Based on her experience and what she went through, Tina has been a zealous figure for these changes, which I agree with,” Kanatzar said Wednesday afternoon.
The two changes include an appeals procedure for denied Amber Alert requests and complete record-keeping on protection orders.
“She’s had concerns that if those changes had been in place five years ago, police would have been able to move quicker,” Kanatzar said.
Porter’s two children, Sam, 7, and Lindsey, 8, were killed in 2004 after her estranged husband, Dan, kidnapped them. Dan picked up the children for a weekend visit. He soon killed them, but he refused to tell police what happened to them for more than three years.
Porter is now serving a life sentence after he confessed in 2007.
The proposed change to the Amber Alert would allow a parent an appeal process following a denial from local police. Under current law, the parent has no procedure for asking other agencies to reconsider.
“If passed, the parent could go to departments like the sheriff’s department or the highway patrol and those departments could look at it and make a decision,” Kanatzar said.
The other change would require the courts to enter specific details of temporary and full protection orders into state law databases. By doing so, police would know upon contact with a subject the history of the order.
“The custodial issues would be information police could learn quickly,” Kanatzar said. “It gives them more of the story.”
For example, police, upon stopping someone with an order of protection and who has children, would be required to call the other custodial parent with an inquire about their welfare.
“Right now police have only to go on the person’s word, and certainly that can’t be completely trusted,” Kanatzar said.
If the children could not be accounted for or there was reason to believe their lives were in danger, police could hold the parent for up to 20 hours until they are found, Kanatzar said.
Sen. Victor Callahan, and Independence Democrat for District 11, said the proposed changes appear to make sense and he is supportive of them, but he said he still wants to talk to police and law enforcement.
“You still have to consider the every day work of the police department,” Callahan said.
Both Callahan and Rep. Jason Kander attended the press conference, as did Jackson County Sheriff Mike Sharp.
Kander is expected to file the bill and it could be heard in Jefferson City in January.
