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Bill would tighten child‑abuse reporting to Attorney General after gaps in county reporting
Summary
Rep. Joel Mercer said HB 593 would require more detailed and consistent reporting from county attorneys and DPHHS to the attorney general to detect under‑prosecution of alleged abuse; opponents raised survivor‑privacy concerns and urged anonymized identifiers instead of public names.
Representative Joel Mercer opened the hearing on House Bill 593 by tracing the statute's history and the 2019 effort to improve flows of information among mandatory reporters, Child and Family Services and county attorneys. Mercer said the bill would add specificity to annual reporting to the attorney general — including jurisdictional case counts, cases declined and identifiers for charged defendants — so the attorney general can detect patterns of under‑prosecution.
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