HCS HB 1493 & 1594 -- CRIME

SPONSOR:  Bruns

COMMITTEE ACTION:  Voted "do pass" by the Committee on Crime
Prevention and Public Safety by a vote of 7 to 0.

This substitute changes the laws regarding crime and crime
prevention.  In its main provisions, the substitute:

(1)  Allows the Superintendent of the State Highway Patrol to be
a retired member of the patrol;

(2)  Prohibits law enforcement agencies from fingerprinting a
juvenile older than 15 years and six months of age who is alleged
to have violated a traffic ordinance unless the juvenile is
certified as an adult;

(3)  Requires law enforcement agencies to forward certification
papers to the central repository in cases where the juvenile has
been certified as an adult;

(4)  Requires the municipal prosecuting attorney to notify the
central repository of his or her decision not to file criminal
charges on any charge referred to him or her;

(5)  Requires municipal court clerks to furnish the central
repository with a record of all charges filed in cases where the
central repository has an arrest record or fingerprint;

(6)  Allows a court to order law enforcement agencies or court
marshals to fingerprint an individual at the time of any court
appearance if the person has not been fingerprinted for an
offense in which a fingerprint is required.  The order must
contain the offense, charge code, date of offense, and any other
information necessary to complete the fingerprint card;

(7)  Expands the list of crimes that are reportable to the
central repository;

(8)  Revises the process by which a qualifying entity may obtain
a criminal record of a provider from the State Highway Patrol;

(9)  Revises the definitions of "domestic violence" and "family
or household member" to include a person who is or has been in a
continuing romantic or intimate relationship with the victim or
adults having a child in common regardless of whether they have
been married or lived together so that those terms are consistent
with regard to all reported incidents of domestic violence in the
Missouri Crime Index, domestic violence shelters, the reporting
of homicides and suicides related to domestic violence, and
domestic violence crimes;

(10)  Allows the executive officer of any public safety agency to
enter into a mutual-aid agreement for reciprocal emergency aid
and specifies that the Department of Public Safety will
administer the state mutual-aid system.  Any employee of a
political subdivision or public safety agency responding to an
emergency, disaster, or public safety need that is not declared
by the Governor as an emergency is subject to the liability and
workers' compensation provisions provided to him or her as an
employee of the subdivision or agency.  However, during a
Governor-declared emergency, any employee responding will not be
liable for civil damages or administrative sanctions for the
failure to exercise the skill and learning of an ordinarily
careful public safety professional in similar circumstances but
will be liable for damages due to willful and wanton acts or
omissions in rendering services;

(11)  Prohibits political subdivisions from regulating emergency
personnel with regard to their membership in political
organizations and their rights to attend political meetings,
express political views, vote, and run for elective or appointive
office in any political subdivision that does not have
jurisdiction over the person's place of residence.  Political
subdivisions are allowed to regulate the conduct of emergency
personnel during work hours and while they are in uniform;

(12)  Allows the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners to
develop a test to measure ordinary physical strength for employed
commissioned police officers in its jurisdiction.  However, the
test will not be used as the sole factor in determining a police
officer's continuing employment;

(13)  Specifies that the terms "public employees" and "employee
of the public entity" do not include offenders in the custody of
the Department of Corrections or prisoners in the custody of a
county or municipal jail for the purpose of state sovereign
immunity protection.  The term "custody" includes any prisoner or
offender outside of a correctional center or jail for the purpose
of work release.  The substitute also abrogates any court
decision issued after August 13, 1978, that interprets these
terms to the contrary;

(14)  Requires the Geographic Resources Center at the University
of Missouri to identify any registered sexual offender who is in
violation of the statute which prohibits residing within 1,000
feet of a school or childcare facility and to provide the State
Highway Patrol with an annual study that includes the name of the
person and his or her address for distribution to all state law
enforcement agencies;

(15)  Authorizes state college and university police officers to
enforce traffic regulations on college or university property.
Motor vehicles on state college or university campuses must obey
the general motor vehicle laws of the state.  The board of
regents or board of governors may establish traffic regulations,
and moving violations will be treated in the same manner as a
violation of a municipal ordinance.  The officers will be
required to be certified under the Peace Officer Standards and
Training (POST) Program and will have authority under the fresh
pursuit doctrine in Section 544.157, RSMo;

(16)  Establishes a procedure by which an ambulance district
board member may be recalled from office by the registered voters
of the member's election district.  No board member can be
recalled during the first or last 180 days of the member's
current term or if a previous recall election was decided in the
member's favor during the current term;

(17)  Prohibits a political subdivision from imposing a fine or
penalty on the owner of a pay telephone or on the owner of any
property upon which a pay telephone is located for emergency
service calls;

(18)  Creates the crime of possessing or having control of a
restricted natural substance, a class A misdemeanor for the first
offense and a class D felony for each subsequent offense.  No
person will be guilty of the crime if the person owns, possesses,
manages, or otherwise controls land on which a restricted natural
substance naturally grows unless the person knowingly plants or
cultivates the restricted natural substance, harvests the
substance for any person to drink, inhale, or otherwise ingest
the restricted natural substance, or allows or authorizes another
person to drink, inhale, or ingest the substance;

(19)  Specifies that it will be unlawful for any person to
distribute, deliver, manufacture, produce, or cultivate a
restricted natural substance or to attempt to or possess with
intent to distribute, deliver, manufacture, produce, or cultivate
a restricted natural substance.  A person who commits any of
these crimes will be guilty of a felony with a minimum of four
years' imprisonment for the first offense and a minimum of 10
years for each subsequent offense;

(20)  Lowers the age for which the juvenile court does not have
jurisdiction over a child who is alleged to have violated a state
or municipal traffic ordinance or regulation from 15 years and
six months of age to 15 years of age;

(21)  Requires a photograph to be taken of an incarcerated
individual upon release and made available to the victim upon his
or her request;

(22)  Allows offenders to appear before the Board of Probation
and Parole by means of a video conference, rather than by
personal appearance, at the discretion of the board;

(23)  Allows any offender to refuse parole that is conditioned on
the performance of free work.  Any county, city, person,
organization, agency, or its employee who is charged with the
supervision of free work or who benefits from its performance
will be immune from any cause of action arising from his or her
supervision of performance, except for an intentional tort or
gross negligence;

(24)  Specifies that gifts may be included as a person's assets
for the purpose of determining the amount a prisoner is able to
pay to reimburse the state for expenses incurred while the
prisoner is incarcerated;

(25)  Allows for the reimbursement of expenses associated with
psychological stress of paid police officers of a paid police
department who are Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST)
certified;

(26)  Establishes the Line of Duty Compensation Act which
authorizes a claim to be filed with the Division of Workers'
Compensation within the Department of Labor and Industrial
Relations on behalf of a law enforcement officer, emergency
medical technician, paramedic, aviation medical crew member,
firefighter, juvenile justice employee, or Department of
Corrections employee who was killed in the line of duty.  The
claim must be filed no later than one year from the date of the
death by the spouse, dependent, or other specified person.  The
amount of compensation for the claim will be $100,000, subject to
appropriations, for deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2010.
A burial benefit of up to $10,000 will also be payable to the
surviving spouse or the estate of an employee who is killed in
the line of duty;

(27)  Creates the Line of Duty Compensation Fund with moneys
appropriated from general revenue and used solely for the purpose
of the provisions of the Line of Duty Compensation Act.  The
division must annually submit by February 1 a report on the
fund's expenditures to the Governor and General Assembly;

(28)  Increases the penalty for commercial drivers who are
convicted of operating a commercial motor vehicle in a willful or
wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property while
having an alcohol concentration of .04% or higher or under the
influence of certain substances from a class B to a class A
misdemeanor;

(29)  Requires commercial vehicle enforcement officers to meet
the mandatory standards for basic training and licensure of peace
officers.  Officers who are employed and performing their duties
on August 28, 2006, will have until July 1, 2010, to comply with
the mandatory standards;

(30)  Prohibits an individual with a temporary instruction permit
or an intermediate driver's license from operating a motor
vehicle while using a cell phone except for an emergency or when
operating a motor vehicle on private property.  Any person
violating this provision will be guilty of an infraction
punishable by a $20 fine for the first offense and a $50 fine for
a second offense;

(31)  Specifies that professional and amateur mixed martial arts
will be governed by the Division of Professional Registration
within the Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions, and
Professional Registration and prohibits any contest in which a
contestant in any amateur or professional full-contact karate or
mixed martial arts contest is younger than 16 years of age;

(32)  Requires any person or entity that accepts or purchases any
form of copper or copper alloy as scrap, refuse, recyclable
waste, or surplus building materials, except aluminum beverage
cans, to register with the Department of Natural Resources.
Dealers purchasing specified materials including copper or its
alloys, brass, aluminum or its alloys, and surplus building
materials must obtain a record of the seller's name, address,
driver's license number, vehicle license plate number, vehicle's
make and model, and the amount and type of metal purchased.
Records must be kept for three years and made available to law
enforcement officers upon request.  Anyone violating these
provisions will be guilty of a class C misdemeanor, and a
subsequent violation will be a class B misdemeanor;

(33)  Requires a retailer of cigarettes or tobacco products to
have a retail tobacco license issued by the Division of Alcohol
and Tobacco Control within the Department of Public Safety, pay
an annual $25 fee by May 1, and have a retail sales tax license
before selling any products.  The license must be continually and
publicly displayed at the retailer's place of business;

(34)  Establishes the Identity Theft Prevention Act which
specifies the procedures for a person to place a security freeze
on his or her consumer report.  A consumer reporting agency will
remove or temporarily lift a freeze upon the consumer's request
or if the consumer report was frozen due to a material
misrepresentation of fact by the consumer.  A consumer credit
reporting agency must disclose in writing to the consumer a
summary of his or her rights under Missouri law.  Any person
violating these requirements may be liable for any actual damages
sustained by the consumer as a result of his or her negligence
and the costs and attorney fees associated with any lawsuit;

(35)  Establishes provisions for the prevention of and protection
from security breaches.  Any person or entity that owns or uses
personal information concerning a Missouri resident in any form,
whether computerized, paper, or otherwise, is required to
disclose a breach of security to any resident whose personal
information was wrongfully acquired.  Notification must be made
in the most expedient time possible without reasonable delay and
may be given by written or electronic notice.  Substitute notice
may be given if the cost of providing notice would exceed
$250,000 or that the affected class of subject persons to be
notified exceeds $500,000 or the agency does not have sufficient
contact information.  All remedies, penalties, and authority
granted to the Attorney General will be available for the
enforcement of these provisions;

(36)  Specifies that any person convicted of criminal securities
fraud will be fined an amount not to exceed $1 million, be
sentenced to a term of imprisonment not to exceed 10 years, or
both.  If the violation was committed against a disabled or
elderly person, the offender will be fined an amount not to
exceed $50,000, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment not to
exceed five years, or both;

(37)  Removes the requirement that Jackson County must reimburse
the state for moneys received for the salary and benefits payable
to the drug court commissioner in the 16th Judicial Circuit;

(38)  Allows a judge to order the defendant in a municipal or
circuit criminal case to pay costs as determined in Section
488.012;

(39)  Allows counties not participating in the Missouri
Nonpartisan Court Plan to collect a surcharge in civil cases to
be used for courthouse security purposes;

(40)  Allows a circuit judge to assess criminal court costs
against a defendant if the defendant consents;

(41)  Authorizes licensed ambulance services, emergency medical
response agencies, and not-for-profit organizations which
contract for ambulance services to establish peer review
committees;

(42)  Specifies that the statute of limitations for any robbery
or arson offense will be five years;

(43)  Allows a judge to order a probationer, as a condition of
probation, to be vaccinated for Hepatitis A and B at his or her
local health department with the costs to be paid by the
probationer;

(44)  Revises the definitions of "domestic assault offense" and
"intoxication-related offense" to include any offense committed
in another state or any federal or military offense which, if
committed in Missouri, would be considered a domestic assault
offense or an intoxication-related offense;

(45)  Expands the crime of assault of a law enforcement officer,
emergency personnel, or probation and parole officer in the
first, second, or third degree to include corrections officers;

(46)  Prohibits any person required to register as a sexual
offender or any person who committed an offense in another state
or any federal or military offense that, if committed in this
state, would require the person to register as a sexual offender
from being present in or loitering within 500 feet of any state
park.  A person violating these provisions will be guilty of a
class A misdemeanor.  A second or subsequent violation will be a
class D felony;

(47)  Adds any person who has pled guilty or nolo contendere to,
been convicted of, or been found guilty of any offense committed
in another state or any federal or military offense which, if
committed in Missouri, would be a sexual offense to the list of
individuals who are prohibited from residing within 1,000 feet of
any public school, private school, or child care facility;

(48)  Prohibits certain sexual offenders from being physically
present or loitering within 500 feet of or approaching,
contacting, or communicating with any child younger than 18 years
of age in any child care facility building or the real property
comprising any child care facility when children younger than 18
years of age are present in the building unless the person is the
parent, guardian, or custodian of a child in the building or on
the grounds.  Any person who violates these provisions will be
guilty of a class A misdemeanor;

(49)  Prohibits certain sexual offenders from being present in or
loitering within 500 feet of any real property comprising any
public park or swimming pool.  Any person who violates these
provisions will be guilty of a class A misdemeanor.  A second or
subsequent violation will be a class D felony;

(50)  Establishes Karra's and Jocelyn's Law which increases the
penalty for the crime of child endangerment in the first degree
to a term of imprisonment of not less than 15 years if an
individual acts to create a substantial risk to the life, body,
or health of a child by shaking a child younger than five years
of age by any body part;

(51)  Changes the crime of unlawful possession of a concealable
firearm to unlawful possession of a firearm and removes the
requirement that a felony conviction be for a dangerous offense
in order to make possession of a firearm illegal;

(52)  Increases the penalty for the crime of possessing child
pornography from a class D felony to a class C felony.  A second
or subsequent offense will be increased from a class C felony to
a class B felony;

(53)  Expands the crime of making a false declaration to include
providing any verbal false statement regarding a person's
identity, which the person believes or knows not to be true, with
the purpose to mislead a public servant in the performance of his
or her duty;

(54)  Increases the penalty for the crime of making a false
report from a class B misdemeanor to a class A misdemeanor;

(55)  Increases the penalty for the crime of resisting or
interfering with arrest, detention, or stop from a class D felony
to a class C felony and clarifies that it applies to any arrest,
stop, or detention for any warrant issued by a court of record or
by a probation and parole officer;

(56)  Creates the crime of disarming a peace or correctional
officer if a person intentionally removes from or deprives the
peace or correctional officer of the use of his or her firearm or
other deadly weapon while the officer is acting within the scope
of his or her official duties.  The crime, a class C felony, does
not include situations in which the person does not know or could
not reasonably have known that the person was a peace or
correctional officer or if the officer was engaged in felonious
conduct at the time of the disarmament;

(57)  Allows a court of competent jurisdiction to suspend or
revoke the driving privileges of any person determined to have
violated any state, county, or municipal law involving unlawful
use or possession of drug paraphernalia while operating a motor
vehicle;

(58)  Prohibits the use or possession of an alcohol beverage
vaporizer.  Any substance that has been approved by the federal
Food and Drug Administration as an over-the-counter or
therapeutic drug product administered by an authorized medical
practitioner is exempt;

(59)  Establishes the Shawn Hornbeck Educational Reimbursement
Program to be administered by the Division of Workers'
Compensation within the Department of Labor and Industrial
Relations in conjunction with the Crime Victims' Compensation
Fund to reimburse any victim of kidnapping and child kidnapping,
who was confined for at least 180 days, for any expenses
associated with any academic tutoring necessary to replace
primary or secondary school studies lost during the time of
confinement;

(60)  Establishes the Law Enforcement Safety Act which allows
records and documents regarding internal investigations by a law
enforcement agency on the fitness and conduct of an officer
employed by the agency used solely for employment matters of the
officer to remain confidential unless the records and documents
are used in a criminal investigation.  The Social Security
number, date of birth, address, or any other personal identifier
of a law enforcement officer must be removed from any criminal
case record in which the officer is not the defendant before the
record is made available to the public unless the court
determines that disclosures will not harm the officer or the
officer's family.  If a disclosure results in physical or
financial harm to an officer or his or her family, the person
disclosing the information will be guilty of a class A
misdemeanor for the first offense and a class D felony for each
subsequent offense;

(61)  Extends the expiration dates for an additional four years
for law enforcement related exceptions to the Open Meetings and
Records Law, commonly known as the Sunshine Law;

(62)  Expands the DNA profiling system by requiring any person 18
years of age or older who is arrested for a felony to provide a
biological sample upon booking at a county jail or detention
facility for the purpose of DNA profiling analysis;

(63)  Allows grant money distributed by the Department of Public
Safety to investigate Internet sexual crimes against children to
be used to also fund the training of prosecuting and circuit
attorneys and assistant prosecuting and circuit attorneys;

(64)  Requires the removal of all emergency lights, sirens, and
decals designating a vehicle as an emergency vehicle prior to
selling or consigning the vehicle unless it is being sold
directly to another public or private public safety agency;

(65)  Creates the Reverend Nathaniel Cole Memorial Pursuit
Reduction Grant to be administered by the Director of the
Department of Public Safety.  Any money appropriated or donated
to the fund will be used to provide grants, in the amount of a
50% match, to urban police departments which purchase real-time
tagging and tracking pursuit management systems;

(66)  Authorizes the Elevator Safety Board to adopt a code of
regulations regarding the licensing of elevator mechanics and
elevator contractors;

(67)  Requires every railroad corporation that operates within
the state to provide the Emergency Response Commission with a
monthly report of all key shipments of hazardous substances
transported by the railroad corporation through or within the
state;

(68)  Creates the Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement Trust Fund to
support the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control within the
Department of Public Safety for enforcement of the liquor control
and tobacco enforcement laws under Chapters 311 and 312 and
Section 407.934;

(69)  Requires any city with a population of 500,000 or greater
to provide its law enforcement officers with firearms with a
caliber of .40 or greater; and

(70)  Allows any government entity or political subdivision to
collect and share the identity of persons with the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.

The provisions regarding the Line of Duty Compensation Act will
expire six years from the effective date.

The provisions of the substitute regarding mixed martial arts
contests contain an emergency clause.

FISCAL NOTE:  Estimated Cost on General Revenue Fund of More than
$877,692 in FY 2009, More than $3,412,620 in FY 2010, and More
than $3,422,086 in FY 2011.  Estimated Effect on Other State
Funds of a cost of $110,806 to Unknown in FY 2009, a cost of
$167,349 to Unknown in FY 2010, and a cost of Unknown to an
income of $59,409 in FY 2011.

PROPONENTS:  Supporters of House Bill 1493 say that the bill
makes it a crime to provide false verbal information when
identifying him or herself to a law enforcement officer.

Supporters of House Bill 1594 say that the bill increases the
penalty for resisting arrest for a felony or situations in which
there is an injury.

Testifying for HB 1493 were Representative Bruns; Missouri State
Troopers Association; and Missouri Police Chiefs' Association.

Testifying for HB 1594 were Representative Lipke; Missouri State
Troopers Association; and Missouri Sheriffs Association.

OPPONENTS:  Those who oppose House Bill 1493 say that there are
concerns that the bill is too broad and covers all conversations
with public servants.

Testifying against HB 1493 was American Civil Liberties Union of
Eastern Missouri.

Missouri House of Representatives
94th General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session
Last Updated October 15, 2008 at 3:10 pm