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Committee adds district attorneys and investigators to law protecting public officials' personal information
Summary
The House committee on April 29 adopted a substitute and amendments to House Bill 3‑24 and reported it favorably. The bill adds district attorneys, assistant district attorneys and criminal investigators to an existing law that allows certain public officials to seek removal of personal contact information from public postings when disclosure creates a safety risk.
The House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs adopted a substitute and additional amendments April 29 and reported House Bill 3‑24 favorably by substitute and as amended. The bill expands protections already available to judges under Louisiana Revised Statutes 44:11.2 to include district attorneys, assistant district attorneys and criminal investigators.
Representative Bryant, sponsor of the original bill, said the measure would let those specified prosecutors and investigators ask for personal contact information — such as home addresses, personal telephone numbers and similar identifying details — to be removed from certain public postings when disclosure creates a risk to the individual or family. The substitute places the new protections into the existing RS 44:11.2 framework that already covers judges; an amendment added an exception preserving public records posted by the Secretary of State when the law requires such filings (for example, notice of candidacy or business process service addresses).
Witnesses at the committee included representatives of district attorney offices and the Secretary of State’s office. Catherine Newsom, first assistant secretary of state, explained that certain filings the office posts online (notice of candidacy information and business agent-for-service records) are required by law to include an address; she said candidates may provide alternatives such as a PO box where permitted and that the Secretary of State’s office cannot redact statutorily required records without statutory change.
Representative Newell moved the bill favorably by substitute and as amended; the committee adopted the substitute and amendment sets, and then reported the bill favorably by voice vote. Sponsors told the committee the change is aimed at protecting prosecutors and their families from threats or doxing while preserving discovery obligations and legal process in criminal cases.
