JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Ryan Backmann, founder of Project Cold Case, got great news earlier this week -- $50,000 was included in the state budget to help create a statewide cold-case task force.
It’s something he’s been advocating for years.
But just as quickly as the good news arrived, it went away -- Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the item.
“Again we’re so close, we’ve come so far and now this new obstacle in our way,” said Backmann.
Action News Jax showed you in February how Backmann along with Sen. Aaron Bean filed a bill that would help fund a task force focused on tackling the growing cold-case backlog.
The task force would be made up of prosecutors, detectives, victim advocates and families. It was the third time the bill was filed and this year was the closest they got to seeing it come to fruition.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office only provided Action News Jax with the number of unsolved homicides dating back to 1990 but that number alone is staggering at 752. That’s only 577 fewer unsolved homicides than the entire state of Colorado.
“We did what FDLE (the Florida Department of Law Enforcement) said: ‘We would love to launch this if we just had money.’ So we gave them the money to launch and the governor comes and vetoes,” said Bean.
According to the governor, the item was vetoed because FDLE didn’t request the money nor did any other law enforcement agency and it was unclear where the funds would go.
But Backmann said the use for the money was clear from the start.
“The $50,000 was literally reimbursement travel for the members of the task force. No one was getting paid; it wasn’t money in some organization’s pocket,” said Backmann.
Backmann said while he feels disappointed, he’s not defeated. He said it’s a public safety issue too important to ignore. He’s already met with JSO detectives to come up with a way to improve the backlog locally while he waits for the next legislative session to begin.
Cox Media Group
