Justice Department Honors Kansas Mother, Crime Victim Advocate

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas woman who founded the Kelsey Smith Foundation after her daughter was murdered will receive an award from the U.S. Department of Justice for her outstanding service to crime victims, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said today.

Missey Smith of Overland Park, Kan., will receive the Ronald Reagan Public Policy Award honoring leadership, vision and innovation to foster changes in public policy and practice that benefit crime victims.

“Missey Smith and others are building a grassroots movement in America to support and protect victims of crime,” said U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister. “I want to thank them all.”

On June 2, 2007, Smith’s daughter, Kelsey, was abducted from a department store in Overland Park and murdered.

Smith has lobbied for the Kelsey Smith Act, a proposed federal law that would require phone companies to provide cellphone location information to law enforcement officials in an emergency.

Smith is one of 12 people and programs being honored by the Justice Department at the annual National Crime Victims’ Service Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Friday, April 12.

“Victims of crime deserve justice. This Department works every day to help them recover and to find, prosecute, and convict those who have done them harm,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “During this National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, we pause to remember the millions of Americans who have been victims of crime and we thank public servants who have served them in especially heroic ways. This week the men and women of the Department recommit ourselves once again to ensuring that crime victims continue to have a voice in our legal system, to securing justice for them, and to preventing other Americans from suffering what they have endured.”