Good Public Safety Bills Advance

By Kevin Kinney
Posted 3/11/21

Last week was a critical week during the legislative session. Known as the “first funnel,” all Senate bills had to be voted out of a Senate committee to remain eligible for consideration. …

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Good Public Safety Bills Advance

Posted

Last week was a critical week during the legislative session. Known as the “first funnel,” all Senate bills had to be voted out of a Senate committee to remain eligible for consideration. All House bills had to be approved by a House committee to remain alive, as well. The big exceptions are budget and tax bills.

I am happy to report that several bills I’ve been working on in Senate Judiciary Committee to protect and enhance public safety are advancing.

SF 241 - Prohibiting obscene material

Providing obscene material to children is often a way of grooming them for sex work by normalizing behaviors. Under current law, it’s a serious misdemeanor for a person other than a parent or guardian to knowingly provide obscene material to a minor.

SF 241 will make it a crime for parents or guardians who’ve been convicted of a sex offense against a minor to provide obscene material to their own children.

SF 243 - Failure to assist

This bill is in response to the drowning death at Coralville Lake of 15-year-old Noah Herring of Tiffin.

Last year, Noah went missing after going swimming with friends. It was later learned he had drowned, but nobody with him had called for help. There is no applicable charge under Iowa law, in this case, for not calling 911 or taking other steps to help.

The lack of immediate information about what happened to Noah delayed the investigation, and caused a lot of suffering for his family. SF 243 fixes a loophole by requiring people to report to authorities if they know someone is dead or injured.

SF 300 – Dependent adult abuse

This bill is in response to a case in which a woman who was a dependent adult was starved to death by her daughter. Iowa law does not currently address such circumstances or provide an appropriate penalty.

SF 300 will make it 2nd degree murder for a caretaker to intentionally or recklessly commit dependent adult abuse that results in the death of the dependent adult.

SF 395 – Crisis intervention

This bill pertains to police department intervention teams that respond to mental health, substance-related disorder or housing crises, and refer individuals for follow-up services. It makes documents related to crisis intervention confidential, rather than public, to protect the privacy of the individual. Documents may, however, be shared with appropriate service providers who help to address the individual’s needs.

State Senator Kevin Kinney represents Iowa Senate District 39, which includes Keokuk County and much of Washington and Johnson counties. Contact him at 319-631-4667. E-mail him at kevin.kinney@legis.iowa.gov.