'JAKE'S LAW': LOCAL POLICE SAY NEW LAW UNNECESSARY

No more laws are necessary to insure that people wanted for crimes in other areas aren't released from jail by mistake, say police in Southeast Missouri.

A group in Independence is seeking support for a proposal that would make it a legal requirement for law enforcement agencies to conduct record checks of anyone before the person is released from police custody.

The proposal, called "Jake's Law," follows the death of a 6-year-old boy who was dragged four miles when he became entangled in his seat belt during a carjacking in Independence on Feb. 22. The man charged with killing the boy, Kim Davis of Kansas City, had been released from the Carroll County jail hours before the carjacking. A warrant for his arrest was still active at the time of Davis' release.

Record checks with state and federal criminal databases are made before a person is arrested and before he is released, said Sgt. Carl Kinnison of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

If a wanted criminal was released from jail, it would be a result of human error, he said. "But I don't know of any police officer who would knowingly do it," Kinnison said.

Officers check criminal records every time a car is stopped or when they respond to a call, said Capt. Robert Hull of the Jackson Police Department.

Neither Hull, Kinnison nor Lt. Col. Roy Lowe of Poplar Bluff police could recall a wanted criminal being released and later committing a serious crime. Law enforcement finds out whether a person has an arrest warrant from MULES or NCIC.

MULES is a statewide system supported by the Missouri Highway Patrol that keeps track of warrants. Along with warrants it shows orders of protection and missing persons, said Randy Bassham, a technical field engineer with the Highway Patrol.

Details given through MULES are quite specific, Bassham said. Beyond a person's name, an identification number such as a birth date or Social Security number must be entered in order to complete an entry for MULES. This ensures that mistakes are minimized when making arrests, he said.

"If someone arrests the wrong person, they're not following the rules of MULES," said Bassham, who spent five years as a MULES instructor.

NCIC, The National Criminal Investigation Center, is a database of arrest warrants, stolen vehicles and other information kept by the FBI. If an individual is wanted, NCIC and MULES will show it, Kinnison said.

When police find a warrant from another law enforcement agency, they will contact that agency, Hull said. If the person committed a serious crime, the agency will come to pick him up.

A 150-mile distance is generally observed as the limit for picking up a prisoner, Hull said, but that can change depending on the crime and the police agency issuing the warrant.

Lesser misdemeanors often result in the wanted person's bond being transferred to where he is being held. A court appearance is then scheduled where the arrest was made, Hull said.

Even though not every small police department has access to MULES or NCIC, every sheriff's department in Missouri does, he said. "If there's ever any doubt, an officer can always call a sheriff's department," Kinnison said.

Errors can only happen when police don't follow established policies that commonly exist in any department, he said. Mistakes occur when an officer has several persons bonding out or when computer connections with MULES and NCIC are down.

"You can't hold someone without a warrant," Kinnison said.

When an arrest is made, police can hold a person 20 hours based on some probable cause that a crime was committed, Kinnison said. Law enforcement and lawyers have wrangled over what constitutes probable cause, but it is generally considered to be facts that link an individual to a crime. The amount of time needed to get a warrant varies among states, Kinnison said.

It's unlikely that police would find an arrest warrant while someone was being released from custody, said Lowe of Poplar Bluff. Warrants show up when a person is being arrested, not released, he said.

Cape Girardeau police might have released someone wanted for arrest in the past 20 years, but Kinnison said he couldn't recall any. If it has happened it would have been for a misdemeanor crime and not a felony, he said.