Nursing home advocates fight to change crime-reporting statutes
October 10th, 2008 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
When neglect or abuse is suspected against an Oklahoma nursing home resident, state statutes say the incident should be reported to the Department of Human Services or the Sheriff’s department.
Jack Crow believes the first call should be to the police.
Crow believes his wife was abused in an Oklahoma nursing home; an investigation determined that her injuries were due to a fall. Regardless, Crow is joining forces with the nonprofit organization A Perfect Cause to make crimes against nursing home patients immediately reportable to police, according to Oklahoma City’s KOCO 5.
A Perfect Cause is a victim’s advocacy organization fighting “to end needless suffering and preventable deaths while protecting the rights of citizens from corporate greed and negligence.”
Crow argues that standards for crimes against nursing home patients shouldn’t be different from the rest of the public. “If she (Crow’s wife) had been assaulted at a KMart, we wouldn’t talk about the proper response. We would have called the police,” he told KOCO 5.
The state’s district attorney and attorney general’s office agree. “When you have a crime scene, there is evidence,” said Scott Rowland, of the Oklahoma County district attorney’s office. “There is witness testimony in these crime scenes.”
A committee was formed to look into the proposal.