Kansas Attorney General Steve Six has reorganized the consumer protection and antitrust division of his office and is making that one of his top priorities, he said Friday.
"The philosophy I've been trying to encourage and approach is to include consumers and business in the conversation we're having," he said during an interview at the Globe. "And we've reached out to many different business groups to talk to them about some of the issues consumers have with their industry or trade and to communicate with them about how we can improve things and, then ultimately, if things don't improve, our obligation to enforce the consumer laws."
Six said that his office is taking steps to educate people about how to contact the consumer protection division via the attorney general's Web site, www.ksag.org. He added that as a result, more consumers are seeking information from that division.
"I wouldn't characterize it necessarily as things are worse with business," he said. "I don't think that's the case. I just think people have more information about services we can offer, and we're encouraging them to use those services."
A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law, Six worked in a private practice for about 10 years before he was appointed as a Douglas County District Court judge in 2005. He served in that capacity for three years before he was tapped to replace former Attorney General Paul Morrison, who resigned in January.
Six was sworn into office as Morrison's replacement on Jan. 31.
He said after talking to people who had previously worked in the attorney general's office, it appeared that the office had not focused on the consumer protection division as heavily as it is now. And, he said, with the transition after Morrison stepped down, he discovered that several old consumer complaints remained unresolved.
Six added that the consumer protection division has invested in new technology and is trying to compile a database so it can track consumer complaints and efforts to resolve them.
On other issues, Six said:
• Authorities now believe that homicide victims Marcos and Hilda Garcia, whose bodies were found earlier this month in their mobile home near Ulysses, knew their attacker.
"It wasn't a random act of violence," he said. "I know there's a lot of concern in the community about 'Is there a killer on the loose, and should we worry?' And I can tell everybody that law enforcement's working as hard as they can to solve it, but perhaps that information helps people understand that it wasn't a random thing."
Six's office issued a press release Friday saying it was not releasing additional details of the crime or the investigation at this time.
• His office has started a series of regional training programs to educate law enforcement officers and media outlets about the AMBER Alert system, a partnership between law enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies and the wireless industry to activate urgent public alerts in child abduction cases.
The system's goal is to notify people about abductions quickly so they can assist in the search and recovery effort.
The attorney general's new AMBER Alert training program gives participants updated information about the system so they can educate their communities about it. Among other topics, the program covers the standards for issuing an alert, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's process for issuing alerts and victim advocates' role in the process.
"We're working across the state to make that program work," Six said.
• His office has developed an identity theft repair kit, designed to help victims of identity theft repair the damage.
"Typically, when someone calls the office after an identity theft problem, the questions always are, 'Well, what's the first step? What's the next step?'" Six said. "And that (the repair kit) tries to lay out in a fairly complete way what do you do to get back to where you were before this happened."
Reach Eric Swanson at (620) 408-9917 or e-mail him at eric.swanson@dodgeglobe.com.
|
|
|
Kansas Attorney General Steve Six has reorganized the consumer protection and antitrust division of his office and is making that one of his top priorities, he said Friday.
"The philosophy I've been trying to encourage and approach is to include consumers and business in the conversation we're having," he said during an interview at the Globe. "And we've reached out to many different business groups to talk to them about some of the issues consumers have with their industry or trade and to communicate with them about how we can improve things and, then ultimately, if things don't improve, our obligation to enforce the consumer laws."
Six said that his office is taking steps to educate people about how to contact the consumer protection division via the attorney general's Web site, www.ksag.org. He added that as a result, more consumers are seeking information from that division.
"I wouldn't characterize it necessarily as things are worse with business," he said. "I don't think that's the case. I just think people have more information about services we can offer, and we're encouraging them to use those services."
A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law, Six worked in a private practice for about 10 years before he was appointed as a Douglas County District Court judge in 2005. He served in that capacity for three years before he was tapped to replace former Attorney General Paul Morrison, who resigned in January.
Six was sworn into office as Morrison's replacement on Jan. 31.
He said after talking to people who had previously worked in the attorney general's office, it appeared that the office had not focused on the consumer protection division as heavily as it is now. And, he said, with the transition after Morrison stepped down, he discovered that several old consumer complaints remained unresolved.
Six added that the consumer protection division has invested in new technology and is trying to compile a database so it can track consumer complaints and efforts to resolve them.
On other issues, Six said:
• Authorities now believe that homicide victims Marcos and Hilda Garcia, whose bodies were found earlier this month in their mobile home near Ulysses, knew their attacker.
"It wasn't a random act of violence," he said. "I know there's a lot of concern in the community about 'Is there a killer on the loose, and should we worry?' And I can tell everybody that law enforcement's working as hard as they can to solve it, but perhaps that information helps people understand that it wasn't a random thing."
Six's office issued a press release Friday saying it was not releasing additional details of the crime or the investigation at this time.
• His office has started a series of regional training programs to educate law enforcement officers and media outlets about the AMBER Alert system, a partnership between law enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies and the wireless industry to activate urgent public alerts in child abduction cases.
The system's goal is to notify people about abductions quickly so they can assist in the search and recovery effort.
The attorney general's new AMBER Alert training program gives participants updated information about the system so they can educate their communities about it. Among other topics, the program covers the standards for issuing an alert, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's process for issuing alerts and victim advocates' role in the process.
"We're working across the state to make that program work," Six said.
• His office has developed an identity theft repair kit, designed to help victims of identity theft repair the damage.
"Typically, when someone calls the office after an identity theft problem, the questions always are, 'Well, what's the first step? What's the next step?'" Six said. "And that (the repair kit) tries to lay out in a fairly complete way what do you do to get back to where you were before this happened."
Reach Eric Swanson at (620) 408-9917 or e-mail him at eric.swanson@dodgeglobe.com.
