WATERVILLE (AP) – News that a Norridgewock man was freed on $300 bail a day before he allegedly attempted to abduct an 8-year-old girl from a Wal-Mart store has led to a push to make judges put a greater emphasis on public safety when setting bail.

District attorneys from across the state discussed the case of 56-year-old Richard Decca at a meeting on Thursday in Augusta. They agreed to pursue legislation requiring a focus on public safety when judges set bail in criminal cases.

“The consensus was very strong,” Mark Lawrence, York County district attorney, said after the monthly meeting of the Maine Prosecutors Association.

Decca made headlines when the girl went missing last weekend at the Wal-Mart store. Two shoppers found the girl with Decca in the parking lot.

Decca, who had told police that he was sick and needed help, had been free for less than 24 hours on bail from a child-sex charge involving a 1-year-old girl. Bail in that case was set at just $300, which Decca eventually posted on June 2.

Decca faces several charges from the June 3 incident, including kidnapping and attempted unlawful sexual contact. He is being held on $500,000 cash bail at the Kennebec County Jail.

Prosecutors viewed Decca’s release from jail and subsequent arrest as an example of why the Maine Bail Code needs revisions. The code should spell out how judges can consider public safety, and not just a suspect’s flight risk, when deciding bail, they said.

“Those factors aren’t clearly front and center on the check list,” said Leanne Robbin, an assistant attorney general.

The prosecutors’ organization plans to come up with proposed legislation by the time the Maine Legislature goes into session, said Evert Fowle, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties.

The effort likely will face opposition.

A person being considered for bail is innocent until proven guilty, so the focus should be on his risk of flight while awaiting trial, according to attorney Walt McKee of Augusta of the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

He said prosecutors were focusing too much on one highly publicized case. “This is not a widespread problem,” McKee insisted.