Local lawmakers, police professionals and victim advocates are hailing a package of bills that help protect crime victims and were recently approved by the state Senate and moved on to the House.

State Sen. Elder Vogel, R-47, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said six of the bills strengthen and reform Pennsylvania's domestic violence laws, offer greater protections to victims of domestic violence and their children, and hold abusers accountable. A seventh bill would establish a crime victims' Bill of Rights in the Pennsylvania Constitution to protect and expand the rights of victims of violent crime.

“These bills are intended to address a number of serious and dangerous issues that face domestic violence victims in particular,” Vogel said in a news release. “We have heard from victims and from victims' rights advocacy groups, and we took their concerns very seriously. I hope these bills are quickly enacted into law and that Pennsylvania will provide these protective measures that victims need and deserve.”

Senate Bills included in the package:

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[naviga:li]SB 313: Makes it easier for domestic violence victims to remove the name of an abuser from a shared telephone plan.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]SB 449: Allows magisterial district judges to use a risk assessment tool when determining bail in domestic violence cases. [/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]SB 500: which ensures that law enforcement protection is available to a victim before or while PFA orders are being served.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]SB 501: Removes third-party safekeeping as an option for a domestic violence defendant ordered by the court to relinquish firearms; [/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]SB 502: Makes it easier for the court to extend a PFA order when an abuser is released from custody.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]SB 919: Allows domestic violence victims who live in public housing to be relocated to another unit.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]SB 1011, which amends the state Constitution to creating a crime victims' “Bill of Rights.”[/naviga:li]

Read more about the bills and why they were created in Sunday's Butler Eagle.