SPONSOR: Veit
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Corrections and Public Institutions by a vote of 13 to 0.
This bill adds to the offense of tampering with electronic monitoring equipment intentionally failing to charge or otherwise disabling the electronic monitoring equipment. The bill specifies that the offense of tampering with electronic monitoring equipment when a person intentionally fails to charge or otherwise disables the equipment is a class E felony, unless the offense for which the person was placed on electronic monitoring was a misdemeanor, in which case it is a class A misdemeanor.
This bill is similar to HB 130 (2025) and HB 1454 (2024).
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that pretrial release is important. We need to monitor individuals using electronic monitoring equipment and appropriately disincentivize criminal activity on bond. Battery charging is an issue, but offenders are given plenty of warnings by the county, and the bill only penalizes intentional failure to charge these devices. This creates lesser punishments for lesser offenses related to the monitoring devices, and helps keep people in the community, especially those who will only end up receiving probation. This prevents people from losing jobs, relationships, and other things that lead to more productive members of society and decrease the likelihood that they end up committing other offenses. The bill is necessary to close loopholes which allow a very limited number of individuals to skirt the device’s design, which is important to maintain the integrity of this important system.
Testifying in person for the bill were Representative Veit; John Wheeler, Cole County Sheriffs Department; and Arnie Dienoff.
OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony and witnesses testifying online can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: