Panel backs bill criminalizing signal jammers after local incidents

The House Courts and Criminal Code Committee unanimously approved House Bill 1155 to criminalize possession, manufacture, sale and use of radio-frequency jamming devices at the state level, citing incidents in which jammers disabled police radios and other communications.

The sponsor, Representative Pierce, said the bill is intended to give state and local prosecutors tools to act immediately when devices that unlawfully interfere with licensed communications are found. “What 11 55 seeks to do is just simply replicate, what is already illegal in the federal law into state law so that it will give our prosecutors the tool to be able, to go ahead and deal with the situation,” Pierce said.

Pierce described a case in Vanderburgh County where officers pulled over a vehicle whose electronics and cell phones had stopped working; investigators later discovered a jamming device in the car. He said federal enforcement through the Federal Communications Commission can be slow and resource-constrained and that state criminal penalties would let local prosecutors act more quickly.

Pierce proposed and the committee accepted an amendment to make the first offense a Level 6 felony rather than a Class A misdemeanor and to avoid a second-offense enhancement, reasoning that many actors are transient and a stricter first-offense penalty better aligns with federal sentencing ranges. The committee took the amendment by consent and voted 13-0 to pass the bill as amended.

In closing, Pierce noted he teaches at a media school and is an amateur radio operator, and said he found jammers available on commercial websites and often manufactured offshore. He urged passage so state prosecutors have tools to remove harmful devices from circulation.

The committee vote was unanimous 13-0; House Bill 1155 advances to the full House.