law enforcement – Missouri House of Representatives Newsroom

‘Blair’s Law’ Passed Again, Sponsors Confident it will Become Law

A mother’s nearly 13 year quest for justice for her daughter might have finally reached its end, with one of the bills passed at the end of this year’s regular legislative session.

Michele Shanahan DeMoss has visited the Missouri State Capitol regularly for the 12 years since her daughter Blair’s tragic death, advocating for passage of a law honoring Blair’s life and aimed at saving others. On the final day of the session she saw it finally passed to the governor. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

On July 4, 2011, 11 year-old Blair Shanahan Lane was struck by a bullet fired carelessly into the air by a person more than half a mile away. Blair died the next day. The man who fired that gun served 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter. There is no state law that addresses what is often called “celebratory gunfire.” Every legislative session since her daughter’s death, Michele Shanahan DeMoss has come to Jefferson City in an effort to change that.

On the final day of the 2024 session the legislature gave final passage to a bill that included Blair’s Law, to criminalize the careless discharge of a firearm in or into the limits of a municipality.

“I woke up this morning and I said, ‘This is the day. Let’s do it,’ and I just felt, without any hesitation, that it would happen,” Shanahan DeMoss said of that morning, and how she felt before heading to the Capitol. She was in the House when the final vote was taken.

Mark Sharp (D-Kansas City) was one of the sponsors of Blair’s Law, as he has been for the past five years. He has long seen the passion and emotion Shanahan DeMoss pours into the effort, and it became personal for him as well.

“It’s been so important to my community,” Sharp said. “Just in my own neighborhood, alone, on days like Fourth of July or New Year’s Eve and we have an almost three year-old daughter, and sometimes we don’t even feel comfortable sitting in our living room on the Fourth of July or New Year’s Eve because of the amount of gunfire that we can so easily hear. It sounds like it’s on your own street, it’s so close it comes to feel like it’s in your backyard. It’s very scary. People have been hurt and killed, officers have been hit by bullets that come down, it’s just incredibly scary. We hope that our prosecutor and our chief of police will work together to make some arrests.”

Representative Sherri Gallick (R-Belton) also sponsored Blair’s Law this year. She first heard about it directly from Shanahan DeMoss after knocking on her door while campaigning. She decided, then, that she would also push for the legislation.

“I believe in Second Amendment rights and with that, I believe, comes responsibility. If you’re shooting a gun randomly it’s going to go somewhere. Whether it goes in the air and comes down and hits a house, or hits a human, or hits an animal, there are consequences,” Gallick said.

Blair’s Law would specify that a person is guilty of unlawful discharge of a firearm if they, with criminal negligence, discharge a firearm in or into the limits of a municipality. A first offense would be a class “A” misdemeanor which carries up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000; a second time would be a class “E” felony carrying up to four years in prison; and third and any subsequent offense would be a class “D” felony, punishable by up to seven years in prison.

The first time Blair’s Law was truly agreed to by the House and Senate was in 2023, but it was part of a bill that included other provisions to which Governor Mike Parson (R) had objections, and because of those he vetoed it.

Sharp and Gallick anticipate it will be signed this year.

“Last year was a little different because it was the first time passing Blair’s Law, and it was a little surreal, so when he vetoed it I wasn’t completely surprised,” Sharp said. “This year I have every reason to think the governor’s going to sign it. It’s been a very emotional day for me personally.”

Even after going through the emotional high to low of the first ever passage of Blair’s Law last year followed by the disappointment of its veto, Shanahan DeMoss did not hesitate to come to the Capitol multiple times this year to push for it again.

“She was my only child, my entire world, and she is still my child and I am still her example, so to persevere for something that I know will make a difference is, without any hesitation, been is something that I have stood by and will continue standing by it.”

Supporters note that one of the positives of the proposal not having passed for so many years is that it continued to garner attention throughout that time. That publicity likely prevented at least some incidents of people firing a gun into the air.

Even if the governor signs Blair’s Law this year, Shanahan DeMoss, Gallick, and Sharp say they want to keep that attention up. That is especially true as the Independence Day holiday approaches, as it is both the anniversary of Blair’s death, and it remains a time when incidents of “celebratory gunfire” spike.

Last year the Kansas City Police Department’s SoundSpotter system – sound capturing technology that the Kansas City Police Department uses to identify potential gunshots – detected 193 rounds fired between 6 p.m. on July 4 and 6 a.m. on July 5.

“The crime that took my daughter’s life, the crime and the irresponsibility that surrounds that crime continues to happen, and so the conversation is there, and I will always show up to support the education and whatever I can do to get people to understand. Regardless of if there’s a law or not, people will still break the law, so I will still help to continue to educate people,” DeMoss said.

“I don’t think that [Shanahan DeMoss is] just going to say, ‘Okay, this is done,’ because that’s not who she is,” Gallick said. “She will continue to bring awareness to it. I think it’s up to us, and the media, to be honest with you. Especially around the Fourth of July, but even with celebrations with the Chiefs and New Year’s and other things that go on, people should not be firing guns recklessly.

“She is inspiring. She had a tragedy and she is trying to find hope and to help other people by bringing awareness to random gun shooting, and it is a problem in Missouri. Missouri has a huge problem with it.”

Sharp adds, “We have to keep our foot on the gas. If that means doing interviews from here across the state to St. Louis, we have to make sure that our law enforcement is aware and our prosecutors are aware that this passed. This is not just an issue that’s solely in Kansas City, it is an issue that’s across the state, especially the St. Louis and Columbia areas.”

Gallick and Sharp are the latest in a long line of former House members who have sponsored Blair’s Law since 2011.

Michele Shanahan DeMoss speaks with Representatives Mark Sharp (left) and Lane Roberts (right), after the final passage of Senate Bill 754, which contains ‘Blair’s Law.’ Roberts carried that bill in the House. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“I want them to know that I celebrate them,” DeMoss said of them, and of all the legislators who have carried the measure. “I celebrate that they put in the effort, that they listened to me, which I know at times is probably hard because I have a tendency to go on and on until I know I’ve driven my point home.”

Blair’s legacy continues in other ways, as well. Six of her organs went to five people, and her mother runs a charity in her name. Blair’s Foster Socks gives socks and other items to children in need.

Blair’s Law was sent to Governor Parson as part of Senate Bill 754. He can sign it into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without his action.

Shanahan DeMoss, like Sharp and Gallick, believes he will sign it, and said if a signing ceremony is held, “I will be there.”

House passes ‘Valentine’s Law,’ increasing penalties for fleeing, resisting, or interfering with arrest

The Missouri House this week voted to increase the criminal penalties for resisting or interfering with an arrest, or fleeing from law enforcement. The bill is named in honor of a St. Louis County Police Detective who was killed by a fleeing suspect, in 2021.

“On December 21, 2021, Detective Valentine, my colleague and my friend, gave his life when he was killed by a fleeing felon who was purposely driving in oncoming traffic, fleeing from police.”

That was the opening statement from Representative Justin Sparks (R-Wildwood), the sponsor of House Bill 1692. Sparks was with the St. Louis County Police Department for nearly 15 years. He knew Detective Tony Valentine personally, and was on the scene when he died.

“That felon, who had been arrested multiple times for violent felonies, took off and decided to drive his vehicle as fast as it would go, into oncoming traffic. Well, in that oncoming traffic was Detective Valentine, and I believe that he saw what that fleeing felon was doing, and he willingly gave his life to stop that vehicle, that 2,000 or 3,000 weapon, from hitting the school bus that was behind him down the road.”

Sparks was certainly not the only House member to speak in favor of the legislation with passion borne of personal experience. Representative Lane Roberts (R-Joplin), whose career in law enforcement spans decades, including as Joplin Police Chief and the state’s Director of Public Safety, said he knows what it’s like to lose friends and to lose those under his command.

“When you look at their faces and you see the pain and you hear the anguish, and then you’re given an opportunity like this to actually do something about it, it would be irresponsible to the point of dereliction for us to fail to do something about it,” Roberts said.

*Representative Justin Sparks spoke at a media conference on 02/14/2024 backed by St. Louis area law enforcement, in support of Valentine’s Law. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

“The idea that you can run down the road at 100 miles an hour in 4,000 pieces of metal and call it a misdemeanor is like saying that pointing a gun at somebody is a misdemeanor. It’s a dangerous weapon and you’re putting people at risk, and there’s absolutely no excuse for it. It is conduct that should be a felony.”

In a display of the bill’s bipartisan support, Representative Robert Sauls (D-Kansas City), agreed. His career includes time as both a Jackson County prosecutor, and as a public defender.

“There are a couple of offenses that I think, maybe, the penalty might be too harsh, and there are some where I think it is too light, and this is one that I think is, in particular, too light, because of what the ultimate harm may potentially be,” Sauls said. “This offense has the potential to kill and harm people and I just think … it’s one of the few that I think is too soft.”

“This applies to the violent felons who know exactly what they’re doing and who accelerate at extreme speeds into oncoming traffic, putting everybody at risk,” Sparks explained.

“This bill will make fleeing from police a felony, but only when doing so puts the public at risk of serious physical injury or death. This will not apply to folks that are looking for a place to pull over, this will not apply to folks that are confused, this will not apply to folks that are a little unsure if it’s a legitimate police officer behind them. They can continue at the speed limit until they find a well-lit place to pull over for the traffic stop.”

*Representative Robert Sauls (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

A person would violate Valentine’s Law if they reasonably know law enforcement is trying to stop them and they flee at a speed 10 miles per hour or more greater than the posted speed limit, and if, in doing so, they pose a risk of physical harm or death to any person.

The offense would be a class D felony with a one-year minimum prison sentence. It would increase to a class B felony if, by fleeing, they cause serious physical injury to another person. It would become a class A felony if by fleeing they cause another person’s death.

The bill also adjusts the circumstances for when resisting or interfering with arrest is a class A misdemeanor and when it is a class E felony. If such an act is committed with the use of a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or involves taking someone hostage, it would be a class A felony.

The House voted 107-25 on Wednesday to send HBs 1692 & 1748 to the Senate, where versions of Valentine’s Law have been advanced out of a committee and a bill that includes it has been passed and sent to the House.

VIDEO: ‘Valentine’s Law’ named in honor of fallen detective, would target those fleeing from law enforcement

Law enforcement from throughout the state joined Representative Justin Sparks (R-Wildwood), House Speaker Dean Plocher (R-St. Louis), Senator Tracy McCreery (D-St. Louis County) and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) to talk about Sparks’ House Bill 1692.

The bill, which is backed by the Law Enforcement Legislative Coalition (LELC), would create “Valentine’s Law,” named for St. Louis County Police Detective Tony Valentine. Detective Valentine died in the line of duty in 2021 after his vehicle was struck head-on by a suspect fleeing authorities in a stolen vehicle.

HB 1692 would create the offense of “aggravated fleeing from a stop or detention of a motor vehicle.” This would make it a felony for an individual to knowingly evade law enforcement during an attempted vehicle stop.

See what law enforcement and these officials had to say about HB 1692 and senate version, which is sponsored by Sen. McCreery, and about how the bill would honor Detective Valentine:

House proposal could close missing persons cases, finally giving answers to families

For more than four decades, two Missouri families have been among an untold number who are going through the anguish of not knowing what happened to a loved one who simply vanished. Backers of a proposal coming before a House committee this week say its passage could be the key to immediate answers in those cases and many more, not just in Missouri but nationwide.

*Geneva Verneal Adams has been missing since 1976*.

“I still have hope. I still hope we can get something done,” Steve Crump said. He has never stopped looking for his mother, who has been missing for 47 years.

53-year-old Geneva Verneal Adams usually didn’t go out at night, and she didn’t drink, but she loved to dance, so on July 14, 1976, she asked her daughter to go out with her. Lonely after her first husband had died and a second marriage ended in divorce, she was smiling big when she left, hoping to have a fun night out.

Her daughter decided to call it a night early, but Adams was enjoying dancing with a man she’d met at the Artesian Lounge in Herculaneum and opted to stay. Adams left the bar with him around 1 the next morning. What happened to her after that has never been known.

Crump, who was 17 when his mother went missing, has never given up looking. Many years and many disappointments later, a police officer – the son of one of the original detectives on his mother’s case – gave him another glimmer of hope. He had learned of a body that had been found just weeks after his mother disappeared and in the same general area, went unidentified, and was buried not far away in Illinois. Many of its characteristics matched those of his mother, and it was going to be exhumed to see if this was Geneva.

When the grave was opened, it was empty.

Some 90 miles away and three years after Geneva disappeared, 19-year-old Cheryl Anne Scherer called home from her job at a small self-service gas station in Scott City. She talked to her mother about what would be served for dinner that night and some sewing Scherer planned to do when she got home. Authorities can account for all but ten minutes of what went on after that phone call, and in that ten-minute window, something happened to Scherer and her family never heard from her again.

*Cheryl Scherer in 1977, and an age-progressed photo of how she might appear today.*

More than 14 years passed before Diane Scherer-Morris accepted that her sister might never come.

“I can attest to my dad sitting on the stair steps, because the phone was next to the, going up the stairs, and just sitting there and sobbing sometimes because he just wanted that phone to ring … but we never got the phone call that it was her, or that they’d found her,” Diane told House Communications.

Both of these are families holding on to hope, and both of them could stand another chance of finally getting closure through the passage of House Bill 1716.

Both are asking lawmakers to give them that chance.

HB 1716 would require that all law enforcement agencies in Missouri participate in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, better known as NamUs. It is a nationwide database of cases of missing persons and unidentified human remains. Each case entry might include physical descriptions or DNA evidence, or both.

That database was launched in 2007. The more data is entered, the more open cases of unidentified bodies and missing persons can be advanced and even solved, and more families like those of Geneva Adams and Cheryl Scherer can finally get answers.

Many law enforcement agencies, however, still don’t enter their information on such cases into that database. Only 12 states require that the agencies within their borders participate. By proposing HB 1716, Representative Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville) wants to bring Missouri into the fold.

“Really it’s an awareness bill. It’s going to create awareness that this tool is available because if everyone participates, the data becomes more reliable,” Byrnes said. “The more states that can come on board, the better off the entire country of finding missing persons will be, because we won’t have these holes across the country.”

NamUs currently records that there are about 120 unidentified bodies in Missouri, but the real number is likely far greater.

“We don’t know what that unidentified person’s number will climb to once we all work to one database. We do know that number will go up, we just don’t know what it will go to,” Byrnes said.

Getting all Missouri agencies to participate in NamUs would not only lead to answers in this state but anywhere in the U.S. Data in the System has resulted in connections that span multiple states, such as when a body found in 1982 in Arizona was just three years ago identified as that of a teen who disappeared from St. Louis in 1981. That case remains unsolved, but her family was “awestruck” to finally know what happened.

Cheryl Scherer’s brother, Anthony, said he is more than ready for his family to also get an answer. For these long decades, he has considered the numerous theories that have been proposed about what happened, including that Cheryl was a victim of notorious serial killers Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas, who authorities say were operating in the region at the time.

“It could be anything,” Anthony Scherer said. “[Maybe] a local person might have had something to do with it and has been holding it all these years. One of the things that we stress when we have get-togethers is the conscience part of it, that they’re getting toward the end of their life and that maybe one day they’re just going to have to get something off their conscience and say something they know or admit to doing something. As far as that, that’s the best answer I can say because there’s just not a whole lot to go on.”

Steve Crump wants this bill to pass so that other families might be spared the years and years of pain he experienced. He still thinks his answer could be found with the body that was supposed to be in that Illinois grave.

“Everything matched … she [had] brown hair, hazel eyes, they had all this information about this woman. The coroner said she was in between 30 and 60, so our mom would fall in there,” Crump said about just some of the details that matched. “We got our hopes up. Oh my gosh, I really thought that this was it, we’re going to find her.”

Geneva Adams’ case is a perfect example of why more agencies need to get active with NamUs, according to Courtney Nelson, Board Member and Advocate of the Missouri Persons Support Center.

She said if the System had been in place in 1976, authorities might have sooner made the connection between that body and Adams’ disappearance. Instead, it wasn’t made until 2018, and poor documentation appears to have led to digging up the wrong grave.

“We can avoid all of that by really utilizing NamUs,” Nelson said.

Nelson is one among those who brought the idea to Rep. Byrnes. She said passing HB 1716 would send a message to families like those of Geneva Adams and Cheryl Scherer, that law enforcement still cares and hasn’t forgotten.

“Everybody deserves to be found and put to rest, or just found, in general. If there is an unidentified person, there is a family out there wondering where they’re at or looking for them, and I just think having law enforcement take the time to really care and add all of this information in there is really going to revitalize the hope for these families that have been waiting for so long,” Nelson said.

Click here at 4pm Wednesday, February 7, to see the hearing on HB 1716

HB 1716 will be the subject of a hearing by the House Committee on Emerging Issues, on Wednesday at 4:00. The hearing can be watched live through the House website, but Rep. Byrnes is calling on those concerned with missing persons to come and testify or submit testimony online.

“When there’s people that show up to show this matters to Missourians it makes it much easier for lawmakers to solve a problem, and I know this matters to Missourians, it matters to law enforcement, and everyone that’s involved in the cases of unidentified people and missing persons, and we need them to show up at 4:00 on Wednesday.”

Crump said if HB 1716 passes, his family might at last get to do one simple thing for his mother.

“We could have a funeral service. We’ve never had a funeral service for her, and have that closure … I just think that it would be awesome, fighting for all these years and [to have] finally found her.”

Scherer-Morris and her brother hope for the same thing.

“We actually have a tombstone and [Cheryl’s] is between mom and dad’s, so my ultimate goal before I die,” Scherer-Morris struggles to say as the tears come, “and I think we all feel this way, is that we just want to find her and give her a chance to lay next to mom and dad. She didn’t deserve this. She missed out on a lot of life and we missed out on having her in our lives, so the ultimate goal would just be [to be] able to find her and lay her to rest between mom and dad. I just feel like that’s what we owe, to keep trying to find, for her. We have to keep being her voice, we have to keep being her advocate because she can’t do that for herself.”

HB 1716 would also require additional training for law enforcement on unidentified and missing persons cases; require that fingerprints from unidentified remains be submitted to the Highway Patrol and that a dental examination must be performed on remains; and that an unidentified person record in NamUs be created within 30 days of the discovery of such remains.

Families no longer have to pay for highway memorials for fallen first responders and service people

Memorials for fallen veterans, police officers, and firefighters, and for those missing in action, will no longer be paid for by the families of those individuals, under legislation that became law this year.

*LCPL Jared Schmitz (Photo courtesy of Mark Schmitz)*

It’s called the “FA Paul Akers, Junior, and LCPL Jared Schmitz Memorial Sign Funding Act,” and it stemmed from the efforts to memorialize those two men, both of whom died while serving their country. When legislators learned that their families were billed for the signs honoring them, they proposed the language that would have those costs paid for by the Department of Transportation.

“Most people in Missouri didn’t like the idea, just like I didn’t … that once we honor a fallen hero, we didn’t realize the paper trail behind the scenes was to send these invoices to their family members,” said Representative Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville).

Representative Don Mayhew (R-Crocker) said what was happening was “a shock to, in fact, everyone who’s ever gotten a memorial sign done. A lot of times what they have to do is they go around and they get donations from the VFW and other places in order to pay for the sign because, many of them, they don’t have $3,000 laying around for a memorial sign for the highway.”

Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, of St. Charles, was among 13 U.S. Service Members and more than 100 others killed in a suicide bombing at a Kabul airport during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. His family wanted to honor him with signs to designate an overpass on I-70 in Wentzville as a memorial bridge bearing his name.

His father, Mark Schmitz, said the family got a bill for those signs.

“That’s when I started pushing back. How the hell can you charge any grieving parent or person who lost a loved one who died in the line of duty, whether it be police or fire or paramedic or military? I said that just doesn’t seem right. So I reached out to some of the [parents of the other 12 U.S. service members who died in that same bombing] and three of them in California never had to pay for their signs either, so I’m like, this is kind of disgusting.”

Schmitz, who lives in Byrnes’ district, said he supported her legislation not so much due to his family’s experience (donations covered their $3,200 cost in a matter of hours after an online fundraising effort was launched).

*Representative Tricia Byrnes (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

“I was thinking about the wife of a fallen police officer or the widow of a soldier or marine that’s killed, and maybe [the family doesn’t] embrace trying to honor them so quickly. Maybe they take three, four, five years to finally get past that grieving point where they want to do something like that, and then the state’s going to bill them for $3,200. They would have a very difficult time trying to raise that kind of money. Certainly I think it’s really gross or disgusting for them to have to pay the bill themselves,” said Schmitz.

Schmitz said the passage of this legislation is, for him, in honor of his son.

“There will be no first responder who is killed in the line of duty whose family or loved one will have to pay that bill again moving forward, which is a total victory. I think that’s the right thing to do. It’s the least that they can do when somebody has literally given everything they have for this country, in the case of the military; or for their town, if they’re a police officer, fireman, paramedic.”

Mayhew’s experience with the issue began with an effort to honor Fireman Apprentice Paul Akers, Junior, who was killed in the January, 1969 explosion and fire on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, CVAN-65, off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii. Akers was also from Crocker.

“I was nine years old at the time and they had the funeral in the high school, and I remember it like it was yesterday. The entire gym was full, completely full, and that might not sound like much but pretty much everybody in town was at that funeral and the memories are very vivid,” said Mayhew. “I’ve known the family my entire life and so I’m very proud to not only be a part of getting the [memorial sign with his name] put up but also a part of making sure that families in the future don’t have to go through this ever again.”

Mayhew is just glad the proposal finally became law.

“I also want to apologize to those families who have lost loved ones in service to our nation and our state who had to pay for these signs over the years. I hope that they can take solace in the fact that no other family will have to suffer from the cost of these signs ever again,” said Mayhew. “These Gold Star families have already given all in service to the country. The least we could do is pay for a memorial sign.”

*Representative Don Mayhew (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

Byrnes said the legislation was the subject of very little opposition, and for good reason.

“There was a moment on the House floor where somebody said that MODOT’s budget is already pretty tight enough. Do we really want to force MODOT, and I was like, yes because I’m really not going to support selling signs to family members so that we can charge them for grass cutting along the highway.”

The family of LCPL Schmitz isn’t finished honoring him. His father said they are now working to raise money for a series of 100-acre recreational retreat camps, one in each state, for veterans and their families to use for free. Each will have 13 available houses, one for each of the U.S. service people killed in the attack in which his son died.

“[We want to get a] lot of bonding going on, that’s kind of our mission here, is to get a bunch of veterans together that served in different times, different conflicts, different branches, just get them comingling again and have them be around guys like themselves,” said Schmitz.

Advocates who deal with veteran suicide and mental health issues say one of the best outlets for veterans, especially those who have experienced combat, is other veterans.

Byrnes and Mayhew sponsored identical bills. When Byrnes’ version, House Bill 882, came to a House vote, it passed 153-0. The language later became law as part of Senate Bills 139 and 127.

As swatting incidents spike House weighs tougher penalties

False reports of school shootings and other crimes have been rampant for months throughout the United States, and the state House is considering a bill to deal with such crimes.

*Representative Lane Roberts (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

The practice is commonly called “swatting:” making a false report of a crime so that law enforcement – particularly a SWAT team – will respond to an address. It is often used as a revenge tactic, as a way to cause unrest, or in the minds of some it is even seen as a joke.

It isn’t funny to Representative Lane Roberts (R-Joplin), who has a lengthy career that includes time as Joplin’s Police Chief and Director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety. He said such reports create needless danger for the public and for law enforcement.

“Frequently people will make a false call for the purpose of harassing someone, discriminating against someone. It affects their reputation, their business, there’s a lot of consequences to some of these false reports and some of it’s pretty darn malicious,” said Roberts. “The difficulty is that the penalties for doing that now are pretty mild compared to the potential for injury that goes with a call like that. It’s just not something that we can put up with.”

For several years he has proposed legislation to address swatting. This week his latest such effort was heard by the House Committee on Public Safety, which he chairs.

He stressed to the committee that the key to House Bill 302 is how it would define the crime. That is, to give a false report to law enforcement, a security officer, a fire department, or other such organization, “with reckless disregard of causing bodily harm to any person as a direct result of an emergency response.”

Roberts explained, “This specifically says the person who makes the false report for the purpose of doing any of the enumerated things … we’re talking about, what’s the intent of the call?”

Under HB 302 those who make false reports that result in a person being killed or seriously hurt could be charged with a class-B felony, punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison. Falsely reporting a felony crime would be a class-E felony (up to four years in prison). Any other false reports would be a class-B misdemeanor (up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000).

Juveniles making false reports for the first time would be guilty of a status offense. Any further offenses would be class-C misdemeanors and would require a juvenile court appearance or community service and a fine.

The bill would hold any person convicted under its provisions liable for the costs of any emergency response caused by their false report. They could also be sued by any victims. Roberts said that is because swatting can cause, “damage to someone’s business, their reputation, their ability to make a living, their livelihood, so if someone engages in that kind of conduct for the purpose of causing harm to someone’s livelihood, then by all means they should be accountable.”

Jordan Kadosh with the Anti-Defamation League spoke in favor of HB 302. He reiterated that instances of swatting have been spiking, especially after many of the recent shootings at schools throughout the nation. He said after the recent shooting that killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, Missouri law enforcement was “inundated with false reports.”

“These were later confirmed in the press to be attempts at swatting against schools. The act of swatting turns law enforcement officers against the population that they serve,” said Kadosh.

He said the bill is narrowly crafted to help prosecutors make cases against swatters and at last create real penalties for maliciously making false reports.

The committee has not voted on HB 302. Last year the House passed similar legislation 142-0, but it did advance out of the Senate.

Pronunciations:

Kadosh = kah-DOEsh

House bill would increase penalties for ‘swatting’

The House has voted to increase the penalties for deliberately reporting someone to law enforcement with the intent or hurting, embarrassing, or intimidating them; a practice commonly referred to as “swatting.”

Under House Bill 1704 a person would be guilty of making a false report if they intentionally make, or causes to be made to any enforcement organization, a false report that could cause bodily harm as a result of the emergency response.

“The bill hinges on the statement that it is with reckless disregard of causing bodily harm to any person as a direct result of an emergency response,” said bill sponsor Lane Roberts (R-Joplin). “It’s an effort to keep people from weaponizing the public safety system to harm other people; sometimes physically, sometimes by reputation or intimidation.”

“This also deals with the use of the system to humiliate, embarrass, or have people forcibly removed from premises, and this is often aimed at minorities, aimed at religious differences, sexual orientation … recent news has been replete with that kind of conduct,” said Roberts. “This bill prohibits that kind of use of public safety to harm others, to harm their reputation, to harm them physically, or otherwise damage an individual.”

Those who make false reports that result in a person being killed or seriously hurt could be charged with a class-B felony, punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison. Otherwise, false reports of a felony crime would be a class-C felony (up to 7 years in prison) and false reports of a misdemeanor would be a class-B misdemeanor (up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000).

Roberts and other legislators have discussed in recent years how incidents of “swatting” seem to have increased, and in some cases those have resulted in deaths and serious injuries. Roberts’ legislation is the latest attempt to address that.

“Somebody will call in a false report that generates a response from a police agency, sometimes a SWAT team, which by its very nature, puts people at risk of injury or death, both the police officer and folks inside.”

His proposal was sent to the Senate with unanimous bipartisan support, 142-0. Democrats contributed to the language of HB 1704, and Representative Ashley Bland Manlove (D-Kansas City) spoke in support of it. She said she remembers a recent “swatting” incident that happened just across the state line from her district, in Kansas.

“Somebody he was on [a] video game with in California was apparently mad that they had lost the game and used an app to deploy SWAT to the man in Overland Park’s house saying, ‘He’s got somebody in the house and they’ve got hostages,’ so SWAT comes in hot immediately. Unfortunately the young man was a black man,” said Bland Manlove. “I’ve also heard of this being used, as [Representative Roberts] said, in domestic disputes. Somebody’s mad that they don’t have the kids or they have to pay child support so then they constantly use the police, filing false reports against the other partner.”

The bill was also the product of bipartisan cooperation, with the inclusion of changes authored by Representative Robert Sauls (D-Kansas City).

In addition to possible incarceration and fines, violations of the language of HB 1704 could result in civil penalties.

“Any person who makes a false report in violation of this section for the purpose of infringing on another person’s rights under the Missouri or the United States Constitution; unlawfully discriminating against another person; causing another person to be expelled from a place in which such person is lawfully located; damaging another person’s reputation or standing within the community, financial, economic, consumer or business partner interests may be required to pay punitive damages to the victim, so it addresses some of the more malicious forms of use of swatting,” said Roberts.

HB 1704 was sent to the Senate with two full weeks remaining in the legislative session.

Bill would make cost to apply for law enforcement jobs more manageable

A bill aimed at addressing a shortage of law enforcement officers has advanced through a House committee.

House Bill 1703 is sponsored by Representative Lane Roberts (R-Joplin), who was a chief of police in multiple communities including Joplin and is a past director of the Department of Public Safety. He said before a person can apply for employment as a law enforcement officer in Missouri they must first have their license.

“What that means is the officer is going to invest somewhere around $6,000 and, depending on whether they attend the day academy or night academy, four to six months of their lives with no guarantee of a job. The result, in some cases, is they merely have a $6,000 debt,” said Roberts.

Roberts’ bill would create the “Peace Officer Basic Training Tuition Reimbursement Program.” This would pay back individuals for that training over a period of four years if they find a law enforcement job and retain it for four years.

Roberts told the Committee on Crime Prevention his bill aims to make the potential cost of training less of a barrier, particular for two groups of people he hopes to incent toward pursuing law enforcement careers.

“I’m interested in attracting some of those people who are 27, 28, 29 years old, who have a little life experience, have some idea of what they’re getting into. Unfortunately many of those people will have mortgages, they’ll be married, have children, and the cost of burdening their family with a $6,000 debt with no guarantee of getting a job certainly would give them pause before they would apply,” said Roberts.

“Many of the minority categories – people that we have worked very hard to attract – find that $6,000 up-front fee to be an absolute barrier, not just an inhibitor. This would give them the opportunity to have a law enforcement career.”

HB 1703 would also require that law enforcement instructors and their curriculum be approved by the Department of Public Safety. This stemmed from an amendment offered by Representative Kevin Windham (D-Hillsdale) to last year’s version of the legislation. Windham said it was in answer to something that happened in St. Louis County.

*Representative Kevin Windham (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

“We had a police trainer that used some racially-charged language, and as our law stands right now that person would be able to go to any other law enforcement training facility throughout the state. The amendment to Representative Roberts’ bill will make it where a person that participates in behavior that is less than what we would expect, they won’t be able to bounce around from law enforcement training facility to law enforcement training facility.”

The bill carries a potential cost to the state of more than $5.5-million.

“While I don’t pretend that that’s not a substantial amount of money I would submit to you that at a time when we are having trouble recruiting officers, we’re having trouble finding minority officers, we’re having trouble retaining officers, that (nearly) $6-million is a fairly insignificant amount to be able to correct that in a significant way.”

Last year’s version the legislation was approved by the House 152-1 but it stalled in the Senate. HB 1703 has been approved by the Crime Prevention committee and needs one more committee’s action before going to the full House.

Anti-doxing bill would protect Missouri first responders

Missouri House members are being asked to protect law enforcement officers and other first responders and their families by protecting the personal information of those individuals.

House Bill 59 has been called the “First Responders Protection Act.” It would bar counties from disclosing the address or personal information of law enforcement officers and first responders, upon their request. This would be directed at county clerks, collectors, treasurers, auditors, and recorders of deeds.

Representative Adam Schnelting (photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications, 03-10-2020)

It would also make illegal the “doxing” of those individuals; that is, the posting of such information on the internet with the intent of causing harm to them.

The bill’s sponsor, St. Charles Republican Adam Schnelting, said such information has been used to target law enforcement officers and their loved ones.

“Our first responders and our law enforcement officers leave their families every day to protect our own, so I think the least that we can do is to back them up, protect them so that there’s one less avenue through which their families can become a victim,” said Schnelting.

Dale Roberts with the Columbia Police Officers Association said Columbia officers have been targeted by those they’ve arrested.

“They track our officers down. They called our officers after being arrested and said, ‘I know your daughter, Amanda, goes to Grand Elementary School. I know you live at 309 Pine Street,’ and threaten the officers and their families,” Roberts told the House Committee on Public Safety.

“We go to work every day and we understand the responsibilities, the duties, and the dangers of our job,” said Missouri Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police president Rick Inglima. “A bill like this would be paramount in helping our officers protect themselves, to keep their information undisclosed – either online or by going through the county records, to keep our officers and their families safe.”

Backers said the legislation could save local law enforcement agencies money that is expended to protect officers who have been targeted due to access to their personal information.

The Recorders Association of Missouri testified against the bill. Speaking for the Association, Jessica Petrie stressed that it supports the intent of the legislation but implementing it wouldn’t be practical.

“Under Missouri statute recorders do not redact records. We don’t have the processes, we don’t have the software, we don’t have the systems in place to redact,” said Petrie.

She said the bill’s prohibition on the release of any data related to an officer’s address could interfere with the sale of property.

“If you redact parcel numbers or legal descriptions you might interfere with title searches, which is a big function of our office, and if people can’t prove that they’re the only ones with claims to a title that makes the chain of property ownership very messy.”

Petrie said with the range of capabilities and technologies across Missouri’s 114 counties and the city of St. Louis it is hard to predict what it would take – especially in terms of cost – for all of them to get software or other items necessary to comply with the requirements of HB 59.

The Missouri NAACP also opposes the legislation, saying it would create crimes and penalties redundant to current Missouri law. Sharon Jones with the Association joined the Recorders Association in suggesting that many of the bill’s goals could be met by extending to law enforcement officers the Safe At Home Program, which allows survivors of domestic violence and other crimes hide their address.

The bill’s supporters note that Safe At Home’s protections are not retroactive, so records already available through county offices would stay that way.

The committee has not voted on HB 59.

5 years after Hailey Owens was murdered, Representative hopes to pass bill in her name

February 18 will mark the five-year anniversary of a tragedy that shook Springfield, the State of Missouri, and the nation. State lawmakers are hoping this will be the year the legislature passes a bill meant to honor the little girl killed that day in 2014.

“Hailey’s Law” is named for 10 year old Hailey Owens.

House Bill 185 is commonly known as “Hailey’s Law,” named for Hailey Owens. Owens was 10 years old when she was kidnapped while walking home from a friend’s house. She was murdered and her body was found early the next morning.

“It was incredibly traumatizing,” said State Representative Curtis Trent (R-Springfield), the House sponsor of Hailey’s Law. “As I remember the event everybody was talking about it. Wherever you went people were commenting on it. A lot of people, especially people with young families, were concerned that this sort of thing could happen. I think there was a lot of concern and outrage over the length of time it took to issue the Amber Alert. People were questioning the efficiency of that system, and so there was just a lot of uncertainty, a lot of confusion, and a lot of anger that such a thing had happened despite all the safeguards that had been attempted to be put in place to prevent it.”

Soon after the arrest of her killer, state officials and lawmakers turned their attention to the Amber Alert System. Though witnesses saw Owens being abducted, more than two hours passed before an Amber Alert was issued to let authorities and the public statewide know to look for her, and what her kidnapper and his vehicle looked like.

Legislators then and now said that faster issuance of an Amber Alert is unlikely to have changed the outcome in Owens’ case – she is believed to have been killed too soon after her abduction – but Trent said the case highlighted a need to expedite the issuance of Alerts.

“What we are saying is that we have these safeguards in place, we have these systems in place to try to save lives. They should operate as effectively as possible,” said Trent.

HB 185 would require the Amber Alert System to be tied into the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System (MULES), the computer system that allows all law enforcement in Missouri to communicate. That means once an officer enters information about a missing child into MULES, it would at the same time be available to the Amber Alert system.

Law enforcement in Missouri has already instituted this change. Trent said the purpose of passing Hailey’s Law now is twofold: to make sure those changes remain in effect by requiring them in law, and to honor Owens by naming that law after her.

“We want to prevent any future tragedy like this from occurring, and also we call the bill ‘Hailey’s Law’ because want to create a legacy and memorial for the girl that lost her life,” said Trent.

Representative Curtis Trent (left) and Jim Wood of Springfield testify to a House Committee about Hailey’s Law. (photo; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Jim Wood is the father of the man sentenced to death for killing Hailey Owens. He told the House Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety that it was his truck his son was driving on the day of the crime, but law enforcement didn’t contact him until about five hours after the abduction. At the time of the abduction he was at a restaurant about 2-minutes away from his son’s house, which is where Owens was murdered.

“I feel if I could’ve been informed, possibly I could have interceded. It was walking distance to his house where I was, so expediting this situation is obvious to me,” said Wood.

HB 185 would also require the state’s Amber Alert System Oversight Committee to meet at least once a year to discuss ways to improve the system. Currently there is no requirement for that committee to meet.

Trent said having that committee meet regularly to evaluate the system means there will be an ongoing effort toward getting alerts out more quickly.

“The speed is really what matters in these cases. The faster the Amber Alert can be issued, the faster we can find the child, the lower the chance of having a tragic outcome,” said Trent.

The House and the Senate have in previous years passed the language of HB 185, just not in the same bill, so it’s never become law.

The language of HB 185 was first offered by then-representative Eric Burlison of Springfield, who this year became a state senator. Burlison is now carrying his bill in the Senate. Before Burlison was elected to the Senate the language was carried in that chamber by Senator Caleb Rowden (R-Columbia), who is now the Senate’s majority floor leader. Trent believes having the support of those two lawmakers only increases the chance that Hailey’s Law will at last reach the governor.

The Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety will vote soon on HB 185.