Decision on task force dishonors murder victim

Who will be the second?

Tuesday, the likely suspect was Kenton County Sheriff Bill Steenken who announced he will pull his deputies out of a special FBI task force formed to help whittle away at the incredible backlog of unserved arrest warrants.

That's like killing Mrs. Colston all over again. As long as law-enforcement agencies in Northern Kentucky honor her memory with a concerted effort to take dangerous fugitives off the streets, Mrs. Colston lives.

Her death at the hands of a fugitive was a rallying cry for the task force and helped convince law-enforcement officials of the need to round up violent criminals on the loose as well as low-level drug traffickers.

Mrs. Colston's estranged husband, Donald Gene Colston, was free to shoot her to death in April despite being wanted on a year-old arrest warrant for absconding on his probation.

His probation officer, despite having his address in Fort Wright, gave up trying to find him, even though Mr. Colston's record clearly showed he was a dangerous man whose last encounter with the law had stemmed from his attempted robbery of a cab driver.

Mr. Colston pleaded guilty to murdering Mrs. Colston in October and will not be eligible for parole for 12 years.

But it took a killing to get him off the streets.

What's more important?

The task force might have saved Mrs. Colston had it been in place in time. It might still save you or someone you love. But Sheriff Steenken has jeopardized the effort, pulling out of the task force because deputies not tapped for the duty were upset they weren't getting the FBI-subsidized overtime pay.

How absurd. How maddening. How horrifying. What could be more important than saving lives?

Fortunately, Kenton County Police Chief Mike Browning stepped forward with an answer. He wants to create a special unit to find the fugitives.

Chief Browning said the new law-enforcement team, run from his department, would concentrate on serving felony warrants.

It's clear a permanent solution is what Northern Kentucky needs. Every time a participating agency decides it has better things to do than help out the task force, the effort dies. Federal agents coordinated a similar Safe Streets task force in 1993. But try as it might, the FBI could not sustain local interest in the effort, and it fizzled in March 1995.

Northern Kentucky lawmakers need to make finding a solution a priority when the General Assembly reconvenes in 1998. We need state law that's clear on which local law-enforcement agencies are responsible for serving warrants - and, therefore, accountable in tragedies such as Mrs. Colston's.

And we need money from the state to establish a special fugitive unit in Northern Kentucky roughly similar to one established in the mid-1970s in Jefferson County.

That one has been an unqualified success. Two men - one a former New Orleans police officer, the other an erstwhile prison guard - spend their days and nights doing nothing but hunting jail escapees and fugitives who have violated the terms of their probation or parole.

A fugitive unit in Northern Kentucky should be broader in scope but no less dedicated. Fugitives are dangerous, and the need to get them off the streets is evident in the hazards facing those who hunt them.

''I couldn't tell you the number of workers' comp claims we've had,'' fugitive unit supervisor Don Stearns said of his employees. Just the other week one of Stearns' men was injured chasing a criminal down a rickety stairwell. It collapsed beneath him.

Others in a position to get Kentucky's fugitives off the streets should be just as fearless and relentless.

We need a champion

Sen. Dick Roeding, R-Fort Mitchell, said: ''If they can't work it out locally, then we might have to do something.'' But he did not favor seeking state money to help solve the problem.

Rep. Dick Murgatroyd, R-Crestview Hills, said: ''My first thought is that really could be and should be settled at the local level.

''If funding is a problem, then we have to look and say, 'OK, how do we do that?' (But) I think it can be done with existing personnel.''

Newly elected Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, said he hasn't kept up with the issue. ''There are other things I have as priorities,'' he said. ''But it certainly seems like a problem that deserves some attention.''

Sen. Gex ''Jay'' Williams, R-Verona, the lawmaker most inclined to take up the cause, said he would make a priority of seeking state money for increasing the fees that agencies get for serving the warrants. Higher fees would provide local officers added incentive for getting the job done, he said.

One of these legislators - or someone else who represents Northern Kentucky - needs to champion this cause in the General Assembly. That lawmaker or lawmakers should keep in mind the woman who died for all this.

And call any legislation by just one name: the Sandra Bill.

Rob Kaiser is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. His column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5584.