The PROTECT-backed bill, which would create a public website to give citizens information on how their child protection and justice systems are doing, ran a gauntlet of hostile system insiders, emerging just a shell of its original self.

The Virginia Child Protection Accountability System would have given citizens information on the performance of social services, the family courts, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and judges.

Early behind-the-scenes resistance caused lawmakers to cut cops, prosecutors and judges out of the bill. Family court officials also opposed having to report on child protection cases, leading to a last-minute deal that leaves only the Virginia Department of Social Services subject to the Accountability System.

In a final assault on the mugged bill, unknown parties managed to also cut a requirement that the website report the performance of public servants by county, rendering the concept of accountability virtually useless.

PROTECT believes that even a limited public website on social service performance is a good foundation for progress... if the Virginia Senate gets serious and puts the local reporting provision back into the legislation.

When it comes to government accountability, the old adage applies: Everybody's problem is nobody's problem. Only when citizens can see how their public servants are doing compared to others in their state will there be any hope of motivating change.

More information