Crime
Fighting Neighborhood Crime
I support town watch groups throughout the district by providing grants towards the purchase of equipment to help them monitor our streets. I have secured funding for the Police District Advisory Councils of the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 17th. I have provided money for street lighting including the seed money for new lighting in the Washington Square West neighborhood.
Promoting Responsible Gun Control
A leading fighter for gun safety, I favor one gun a month and waiting periods. Understanding that crime is an important issue for everyone, I strongly opposed the repeal of Philadelphia's gun control ordinance and continue to work for instantaneous background checks and preventing private citizens from owning automatic weapons. I am a founding member of the Responsible Gun Safety Caucus and have been endorsed by a variety of gun control organizations including Cease Fire PA. The specific bill that I cosponsored is House Bill 1013.
Ending Discrimination against Survivors of Domestic Abuse
Legislation cosponsored by me would end the current insurance company practice of discriminating against victims of domestic abuse.
Leading the Charge against Hate Crimes:
My office was the command post and I was a floor manager for a proposal to amend the Ethnic Intimidation Act, so those who are assaulted because of their perceived or actual sexual orientation are protected in the same way as those who are attacked based on their ethnicity, color, race, and ancestry. The bill was signed into law on 3 December 2002.
One of the first successful prosecutions under the new law took place in October of 2005.
Missing Persons:
I was a featured speaker at the first ever to be held in Philadelphia Conference on Missing Persons. I am working to provide resources to families of missing loved ones and to local law enforcement and to set up an office, which can assist these families. I have found money to enhance the reward for a missing woman whose case has not received nearly enough press and public attention.
Victim/Witness Services:
I help fund and am a supporter of the Victim/Witness Services of South Philadelphia (V/WSSP), which helps people affected by a crime, advocates on their behalf, and helps find compensation for victims.
Babette Responds to Constituents:
Identity Theft
July 19, 2005
Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about the growing serious problem of identity theft.
At the end of June, we learned that CardSystems divulged 40 million credit card numbers to hackers. Last year, ChoicePoint sold the personal information of about 145,000 consumers to a scam company. Anytime you give personal data to a bank, a university, or a medical provider you run the risk of exposing yourself to identity thieves. According to Newsweek, fewer than one in 700 identity crimes results in a conviction.
I am a co-sponsor to three important bills that seek to address this increasingly common crime.
The first, the Consumer Credit Rights Act, sets new responsibilities for issuers of credit cards requiring that they verify their customers' addresses and changes of addresses. Under this Act card issuers would be prohibited from unnecessarily collecting and disseminating customers' social security numbers and required to shred or otherwise destroy discarded records that contain personal information.
The second proposal raises grading of the offense of identity theft so that judges and juries will take it seriously. Additionally, it requires courts to order that offenders not only make restitution to identity theft victims but also that expedited determinations of factual innocence be made when imposters have committed crimes in victims' names.
The final bill sets up the Identity Theft Database which includes voluntary fingerprinting for victims. It further establishes a three year pilot project in the Office of the Attorney General which would also be responsible for creating a regional information clearinghouse for law enforcement agents, for conducting public awareness campaigns, and for fostering investigational and prosecutorial co-operation at all levels of government.
I will work to make sure all of these proposals are enacted. I am not intimidated by the financial industry. However, the lasting solution to the challenge of identity theft is not to be found in state law. I suggest you make your concern known to your senators and representatives in Washington, so that we can address these crimes on the global level as they must be.
Yours,
Babette Josephs