Legislature(1999 - 2000)
02/29/2000 03:46 PM House HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 269 - VIDEOTAPING OF INTERVIEWS WITH CHILDREN Number 1040 CHAIRMAN DYSON announced the next order of business as House Bill No. 269, "An Act related to the videotaping of interviews with children who are alleged to have been abused or neglected." Number 1021 REPRESENTATIVE GENE THERRIAULT, Alaska State Legislature, sponsor, came forward to present HB 269. He explained that HB 269 was drafted to spark the discussion on videotaping allegations of child abuse. He has worked on this in the past and was not successful in advancing the idea at that time. He said he thought it was time to try again. Shortly after making his request, he learned that Representative Coghill was working on a piece of legislation also. The two of them met and agreed that these two ideas would be melded together sometime through the committee process, and he would look forward to working on that possibility. This bill asks for a pilot project for the videotaping alleged abuse and would be located in Fairbanks. He decided to go with a pilot project because a number of problems have driven up the cost of implementing this. In order to control the fiscal problems he had seen in the past, he thought a pilot project was the way to go. He doesn't have any problem with tightening up any broad language in the bill. Number 0860 REPRESENTATIVE KEMPLEN asked what happens to the videotapes after the pilot project is finished. REPRESENTATIVE THERRIAULT answered that the department would know how that information is kept. That is part of the expense run into in the past, how are the tapes kept, who has access to them for viewing, and under what circumstances do people have access to them. A lot of that needs to be fleshed out in the way the pilot project would run before something is attempted statewide. REPRESENTATIVE KEMPLEN commented that the pilot project is an attractive concept. Number 0793 REPRESENTATIVE THERRIAULT noted he is agreeable to any changes about the timing of the pilot project. REPRESENTATIVE BRICE asked if there are any other projects in the state that come close to a videotaping effort like this. REPRESENTATIVE THERRIAULT answered he has heard in some areas there are setups where some videotaping is done. He is not sure if it is on allegations of child abuse. That information may come from the department. Number 0673 CHRIS STOCKARD, Captain, Division of Alaska State Troopers, Department of Public Safety (DPS), came forward to answer questions. CHAIRMAN DYSON said he was concerned that HB 269 might restrict law enforcement officers. He referred to page 1, line 13, and asked if that would restrict the troopers. MR. STOCKARD noted that the DPS believes the potential exists. A couple years ago there was a bill that mandated a memorandum of agreement between the Departments of Law, Public Safety and Health & Social Services; that established as standard operating procedures the need to always audiotape or to videotape wherever practical. That is done in urban locations, but rural locations tend to be more problematic in terms of having a video set up that is convenient to use and in a dedicated room. It is easier in the more metropolitan areas to arrange for those facilities. MR. STOCKARD noted that the bill appears to say that in every case, DHSS and law enforcement both have a need to interview kids. That is true in cases where there are allegations of in- family abuse or neglect. It is not the case when it involves a stranger or a babysitter or some person outside the home. In many of those cases, although DFYS is notified of a report of harm to a child, the troopers will do the only interviews of the child and will proceed to the Department of Law, but there is no reason for DFYS to be involved so long as there is no indication that the family is any way involved. A lot of the restrictions written around DFYS being involved in every case of abuse and neglect of a child take DPS in at the same time. There is some concern about some of the details on some things. CHAIRMAN DYSON requested confirmation that if an officer is investigating a reported crime against a child, this would not affect DPS. MR. STOCKARD said it says "a child alleged to have been abused or neglected". Certainly, neglect wouldn't come in, but abuse isn't specified by a family member. It could be another adult. CHAIRMAN DYSON agrees it appears to be problematic. Number 0251 REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL asked Captain Stockard to explain an in- town procedure. MR. STOCKARD explained that if a report of harm comes into DPS or DFYS, the agencies notify each other; 90 percent of the time they are able to do a single, coordinated interview with both agencies present. About 10 percent of the time one agency or the other won't have anyone available to come when the interview is scheduled. In Fairbanks, there is no permanently established facility specifically set up for interviewing children, but sometimes the interviews are videotaped. There is such a facility in Palmer; a significant number of interviews are videotaped there and this facility is available to the DFYS and the troopers. CHAIRMAN DYSON said they are trying to prevent the child from having to go through repeated interviews with different people, which can "re-victimize" the kids. TAPE 00-25, SIDE A Number 0010 CHAIRMAN DYSON suspended the hearing on HB 269 in order to take up SCR 12. HB 269 - VIDEOTAPING OF INTERVIEWS WITH CHILDREN Number 0205 CHAIRMAN DYSON reopened the hearing on House Bill No. 269, "An Act related to the videotaping of interviews with children who are alleged to have been abused or neglected." Number 0223 GLADYS LANGDON, Children Services Manager, Southcentral Region, Family Services, Division of Family & Youth Services (DFYS), Department of Health & Social Services (DHSS), came forward to testify. She explained that the information obtained in the pilot project will be used to assess whether videotaping should be required statewide. If adequately funded, DFYS is not opposed to the pilot as a means of ascertaining the efficacy as well as the programmatic and fiscal costs of videotaping interviews with children. The pilot is particularly useful because it allows for exigent circumstance which can cause some interviews to be necessary, because it recognizes that extraordinary circumstances may cause equipment unavailability or failure. The pilot program appropriately provides that failure to videotape should not result in ability to proceed to act on information obtained. MS. LANGDON continued that there will be a need to use two persons in every investigation since fixed cameras and tripods are not effective or accurate for videotaping children who frequently move about during interview sessions. Additional staff will need to be used for taping interviews as well as managing, organizing, cataloging, storing, retrieving and transcribing and copying the large number of videos that will accumulate. To be effective, the pilot program must provide the resources to maintain a valid control group. Sufficient resources must be available to enable DFYS to commit a high quality of effort to the evaluation and reporting components of the pilot program. In order to determine the impact of the pilot program it would need two groups for comparison. There is a great cost in discovery for all the parties who want copies of the videotapes. REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL asked Ms. Langdon to explain the two groups, for comparison. Number 0447 MS. LANGDON explained that one group will be the children who will be interviewed through the division and the other group will be interviewed through the pilot program. The two groups will be compared to see if there's really a difference between the videotaped interviews and interviews not videotaped. REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL asked if audio tapes are transcribed right now or if the interview is just written by the social worker or whoever conducted it. MS. LANGDON replied that in situations where there is taping, it is transcribed. In other situations, there is no transcription. Number 0680 SARAH SHORT testified via teleconference from Anchorage. She said everyone she works with in her community would benefit from HB 269 and would support it. It will save costs in the long run because more time is being spent investigating false reports of harm where children have been coerced into making wrongful statements. She referred to a situation in Wenatchee, Washington where there were falsified reports of harm, coerced testimony and children who were led in the interviews. She believes people are going to want this program throughout the state. This will do something to save the children, and she will help get support for this bill. Number 0846 SCOTT CALDER testified via teleconference from Fairbanks: I agree with Sarah that this should be a full-time, statewide requirement placed on the department, which has abused its discretion repeatedly over the years, and I think we need to look at this sensibly as a correction of a problem with the way our government operates to the detriment of its citizens, rather than allowing ourselves to be lulled to sleep by the argument that we don't really know whether its a good idea and all we need is another three-year study to find out whether the department's going to end up liking it. ... I've been following this for years." MR. CALDER mentioned the economic benefits of this bill. Number 1049 CLYDE LORENZ testified via teleconference from Fairbanks. He indicated he agrees that videotaping is needed immediately. He believes the pilot project is a poor excuse to do away with it. The parents have to be accountable, and he believes it is about time for the DFYS and the Department of Law to be accountable. There are so many false accusations that happen, and it is tearing families apart. Number 1109 MARCI SCHMIDT testified via teleconference from the Matanuska- Susitna Legislative Information Office. She stated that she would go with Representative Coghill's bill [HB 256] if she had to choose. She agreed that more work needed to be done to either combine the two bills or make the language clearer. Number 1174 JODI OLMSTEAD testified via teleconference from North Pole. She stated that people want accountability to families, parents, agencies and children. By using videotaped interviews and the transcription, everyone would be working off the same "sheet of music" instead of having multiple interviews. She would like to know what the checks and balances are right now for social workers officers, children and parents to protect themselves. She encouraged the committee to support Representative Coghill's bill. CHAIRMAN DYSON appointed a subcommittee of Representative Whitaker, Coghill and Therriault to work on HB 269. [HB 269 was heard and held.]
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