Issue Position: Protecting Montanans

Issue Position

In 2012, I campaigned on keeping our kids safe by improving the sex offender registry and holding sex offenders accountable. I've taken numerous steps to follow through on that promise:

Initiation of Sex Offender Compliance Checks

Within a year of taking office, I was able to initiate and coordinate compliance checks for sex offenders to ensure they live where they say they live and that they are following all registration requirements. In conjuction with local and federal officials, I have worked to have these checks performed on several occasions in Missoula, Great Falls and Billings. If re-elected as your Attorney General, I will continue to request these compliance checks and broaden them to other cities in the state.

Revamp of the Sex Offender Registry Website

My team redesigned the Sexual and Violent Offender Registry to make it more accessible and helpful to the public. Now, photos of non-compliant registrant offenders (offenders with unknown whereabouts) are displayed. All offenders are also now mapped to their home address or their supervisory agency. Finally, the Department of Justice now offers a new service that allows the public to be automatically notified by email whenever a sexual or violent offender moves into a zip code of interest to subscribers.

Assigning Risk Levels to Undesignated Sex Offenders

When I came into office, 83% of sex offenders didn't have a risk level to inform the public on the offender's likelihood to reoffend. In the past two sessions, my office drafted and passed bills to give my department more tools to assign risk levels to sex offenders. My office developed and is executing a long-term plan to get risk levels assigned. In the two years of this project, several hundred offenders are now designated. As Attorney General, I want to continue the work on this important, long-term project.

Establishment of the Attorney General's Sexual Assault Evidence Task Force

This task force, consisting of Montana professionals from law enforcement, county attorney offices, Republican and Democrat legislators, medical professionals, forensic scientists, victim advocates, and others, was asked to inventory the number of untested rape kits that have been accumulating at law enforcement agencies across the state for over a decade. The Task Force was then asked to determine whether and how some or all of the over 1,000 untested kits should be tested, and to come up with a plan to seek funding for testing, determine which kits, if any should be tested. Finally, the Task Force will prepare suggested protocols and policies for future handling of kits.

Ending Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is modern day slavery, and it happens right here in Montana. Fortunately, the issue has received more attention in the past few years, and I'm happy to say that my administration has provided leadership on this issue. Working with legislators and nonprofits, we have put human trafficking posters up in high traffic areas around the state. In 2015, my office authored and successfully passed legislation to update our human trafficking state laws in a way that holds offenders accountable and treats victims with respect to help them heal. We have also increased the amount of training law enforcement receives on this issue to ensure they can identify and react to instances of suspected human trafficking. As a direct result of these efforts, Montana is now ranked as one of the top three states in the country for its efforts to prevent child sex-trafficking and Shared Hope International raised Montana's grade on this issue from a "D' to an "A'.

Prosecuting and Preventing DUI

Montana has a drinking and driving problem. While we have come a long way in changing attitudes about this epidemic, we still rank toward the top on DUI highway deaths. Since taking office in 2013, my office has drafted and successfully passed DUI legislation to ensure offenders are held accountable and the public is protected. In addition, I have traveled around the state with my staff to expand the 24/7 Sobriety Program, which we have successfully expanded from 17 counties when I first took office to 49 counties across Montana. I hope to have the opportunity to expand this program to every county in our state to help protect Montanans from the dangers of drunk driving.

Preventing Prescription Drug Abuse

In 2014, our Office of Consumer Protection hired a prescription drug abuse prevention coordinator, and we established ResolveMontana.org to educate Montanans on how they can prevent prescription drug abuse. Our public service television ads have run statewide listing common sense precautions everyone can take to reduce Rx abuse. We also partnered with the Montana Medical Association to establish an educational website called KnowYourDoseMT.org, where medical providers, patients, and the public can learn about how they can safely prescribe, use, and store Rx drugs.

CodeRed

In July 2016, with the generous donation of a Montana business, our office purchased a new emergency notification system called CodeRed for issuing the state's AMBER Alerts and Missing Endangered Person Advisories. The program is mobile device friendly and the CodeRed App can be downloaded on most mobile devices. CodeRed provides multiple methods of rapid communication to the public whenever a child has been abducted, which is critically important in situations where every second counts.

Stopping Scammers

During my tenure in office we've successfully stopped over $5 million from being lost by Montanans to scammers through the efforts of the Department of Consumer Protection and by the end of the year we will have settled and recovered over $30 million for the State of Montana from large corporate scams. We are dedicated to making sure that Montanans are treated fairly and that no one in our state is taken advantage of.

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