The Colorado legislature moved a step closer to making Denver’s 2-year-old Medina Alert system a statewide tool to catch hit-and-run drivers.
Thursday the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that instructs the state Department of Public Safety to quickly alert the media, issue bulletins on electronic highway signs and use other means to publicize the description of fleeing vehicles that have killed or seriously injured a pedestrian or cyclist.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kathleen Conti, R-Littleton, and Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, moves to the full House for a vote, before moving to a Senate committee.
The city of Denver started the Medina Alert in Feb. 16, 2012. The program is named for Jose Medina, the 21-year-old parking valet who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in January 2011, as he worked outside a club at East Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Street.
The program is similar to the nationwide Amber Alert, which instantly notifies the public about abducted children.
Larry Stevenson, the former Denver police officer who created the Medina Alert, told the Judiciary Committee that instant notifications are used selectively in Denver — only in cases with deaths or serious injuries and those that have a reliable vehicle description.
Since it began two years ago, Denver has had 11,681 hit-and-run incidents involving people and property, but only 16 alerts have meet the criteria to be issued.
Conti told committee members they are issued selectively so that the public doesn’t get desensitized and ignore them.
“We know hit-and-runs are some of the most unsolvable crimes in law enforcement,” Stevenson said. “… This is an epidemic for our state. It’s an epidemic for our city.”
Linda Limon Medina, Jose Medina’s mother, along with his sister, fiancee and a family friend testified before the committee Thursday.
“We were getting ready for a wedding, and it turned into a funeral,” Linda Limon Medina told the committee. Her son was days from marrying Shannon Burtness when he was run down outside the Rockstar Lounge. “To me, the Medina Alert will be an honor for the state and an honor for the world.”
She said she now lives in Utah and is trying to start the Medina Alert system there, as well.
Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk Taylor spoke in favor of the legislation on behalf of sheriffs statewide.
“We believe it will engage the public, so it gives us what we like to call a force multiplier” by allowing the public to keep an eye out for vehicles that were involved in hit-and-run crashes, Taylor said.
He said hit-and-run cases are not just an urban issue.
“We know it’s happening a lot in rural Colorado, where (hit-and-run drivers) have more places to go,” Taylor said.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch
