Jacksonville Senator Aaron Bean is sponsoring a bill aimed at helping solve cold case murders.
The legislation creates a task force to reexamine policies and procedures for dealing with unsolved murders.
Senator Bean says Florida needs to do more to help find killers.
“The mission is to bring hope to families who’ve lost a loved one,” Bean said. “You know there’s 15,000 plus murders that are unsolved in the state of Florida since 1990."
"Let’s go after these bad guys. Let’s let them know that we are still looking for them. They’re not off the hook," he said.
Jacksonville alone has around 1,300 unsolved murders. The bill would create a 19-member task force to examine the best ways to solve stale cases.
He said, “Let’s step back and let law enforcement define what a cold case is, what information should be put out there to the public and a system of how it will naturally progress when a case goes cold.”
Bean has filed similar bills three years in a row. He says they did well in committees.
“The last two years we have not had a ‘No’ vote,” Bean said. “The enemy has been the clock, the clock has just run out on us.”
Bean calls the bill a priority and says he’s already lobbying to get the bill heard when the Legislature meets in January.
