Legislative Update
You may have heard about swatting incidents, most recently one against Congressman Tom Emmer. “Swatting” is the criminal act of deceiving emergency services into sending a police or emergency response team to an address by falsely reporting a serious emergency, such as a bomb threat, murder, or a hostage situation.
Even as a minority member, I had a bill included in the 2023 Public Safety and Judiciary Omnibus. My section of the bill implemented a felony penalty for any swatting incident that resulted in substantial bodily harm of a person (Chapter 52, Article 4, Section 19). The provision was from Section 1 of my bill, HF 247. My original bill also contains a restitution section (section 2) that did not become law. I’m having Section 2 of HF 247 jacketed as a stand-alone bill for this legislative session.
Swatting incidents are a danger to innocents and first responders, and I hope that my bill will have the intended effect on these perpetrators, to have them prosecuted under the new law.
Session begins February 12, and I look forward to getting to work in my committees:
If you have questions or concerns about issues that come before the legislature this year, please don't hesitate to contact me.
|
