This bill would prohibit a person from picketing or protesting at or near the residence of any individual with the intent to harass or intimidate and would provide criminal penalties for violations. This bill would require law enforcement officers to ask a person who is protesting to peacefully leave the premises before placing that person under arrest. This bill would allow municipalities or counties to adopt ordinances or resolutions to regulate the time and noise level of any picketing or protesting in a residential area. This bill would create the crime of swatting, to prohibit a person from knowingly making a false report to law enforcement or other emergency services that causes an emergency response from a law enforcement officer or other emergency responder and an individual suffers serious bodily injury or death as a direct result of lawful conduct arising from the report and would provide criminal penalties for violations. Section 111.05 of the Constitution of Alabama of 2022 prohibits a general law whose purpose or effect would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds from becoming effective without enactment by a 2/3 vote unless: it comes within one of a number of specified exceptions; it is approved by the affected entity; or the Legislature appropriates funds, or provides a local source of revenue, to the entity for the purpose. The purpose or effect of this bill would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of the section. However, the bill does not require approval of a local governmental entity or enactment by a 2/3 vote to become effective because it comes within one of the specified exceptions contained in the section.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 11-98-1