GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Governor Walker, busy hopping around the state, signing a series of bills today (TUES) to protect kids.
Two of them would require the state to develop a procedure for investigating abuse of a disabled child….and create the crime of repeated physical abuse of a child. Governor Walker says the laws are good in two ways.
“all these really are about giving more tools to prosecutor and law enforcement in protecting children”
Attorney General Brad Schimel and Allouez Senator Rob Cowles helped bring both bills through the legislature.
Schimel says he’s especially enthused about the legislation that would save victims from having to testify for each individual crime committed against them by the same person.
“especially when they’re talking about traumatic events and they’re on a witness stand in a courtroom”
Other bills equip child welfare agencies with resources to rescue kids who go missing…and require agencies to investigate cases of abuse and neglect by a non-caregiver.
Signed legislation also requires the state, county social services and child welfare agencies to report a missing child to police within eight hours; transfer $1 million from drug enforcement and the state’s crime labs to combat Internet crimes against children; and make parents who photograph nude children for sexual arousal guilty of a felony.
