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Sheriff’s office outlines several legislative priorities including DNA authority and swatting penalties
Summary
Sheriff’s staff described proposed state-law changes they plan to pursue, including allowing correctional officers to collect DNA, adding small Ziploc baggies to paraphernalia lists, seeking stronger penalties for swatting hoaxes, and reviewing disorderly conduct protection-order fees.
Cass County Sheriff’s Office officials told commissioners on Dec. 11 they are preparing several legislative proposals for the coming session, including clarifying who may collect DNA at the jail, adjusting paraphernalia definitions, exploring remedies for railway blockages that delay emergency response, reconsidering fees for disorderly conduct protection orders, and seeking stiffer penalties for swatting hoaxes.
“Right now, in state statute it just references that licensed peace officers can collect DNA,” Jesse said while introducing the topic. Sheriff’s staff said they intend to propose a technical change to explicitly allow correctional officers to collect DNA in circumstances when a licensed peace officer is not available, arguing it may avoid diverting street officers from other duties.
Paraphernalia and other proposals: The sheriff’s office said the state rewrite of paraphernalia law omitted small zip-seal baggies commonly used to package narcotics; staff said they will seek to have that item restored. On railway crossings, officials said federal commerce law limits state authority but they are working with state partners after complaints from small towns where trains block emergency routes.
Disorderly conduct protection orders and swatting: Staff said there is a push by some groups to eliminate service fees for disorderly-conduct protection orders (which currently carry a fee), similar to domestic-violence protection orders that the county does not charge. Captain Katie Fuller, who oversees the transport, civil and warrants division, said the department is “on the front end of researching some of this” and expressed concern that dropping fees could produce an influx of filings that would create additional workload.
The sheriff’s office also discussed swatting incidents — hoax calls that generate large emergency responses — and said they are drafting a proposal to elevate certain hoax calls to a felony when investigators can prove the caller intended to cause a false emergency and the call caused substantial resource deployment. Staff said such callers commonly use generated numbers and often originate from out of state.
Ending: Department staff said these concepts are preliminary and that they will “shop” formal draft language and partners for sponsorship in the legislature; commissioners said they will review any formal requests once drafted.
