SPONSOR: Roberts
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Standing Committee on Crime and Public Safety by a vote of 8 to 2.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HBs 1868 & 3257.
This bill creates the offense of impeding, threatening, or harassing a first responder, which a person commits if a person, receives an oral warning from a first responder not to approach and the person willfully violates the warning and approaches or remains within 25 feet of the first responder with the intent to impede or interfere with the first responder performing his or her duties, threaten the first responder, or harass the first responder. The offense is a class D misdemeanor.
This bill is similar to HB 3257 (2026) and HB 1297 (2025).
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that this bill deals primarily with interfering with the duties of a first responder. This type of law is often referred to as a "halo" law. It is becoming increasingly more prevalent with people who want to take videos but end up interfering with first responders performing their jobs. If someone is interfering with the duties, it takes the first responder’s focus off what he or she is doing. Currently, nothing can really be done until the person actually impedes. This would help them give a warning to keep people back so the responders can focus on their duties. They chose 25 feet instead of a shorter distance because the ability for a person to move close and for a responder to react is diminished significantly at such a short distance. And, even if an officer shoots a person, that person can still close a large distance very quickly and can still cause damage to a person. One witness recommended a change to the term "ambulance driver", which doesn’t exist anymore.
Testifying in person for the bill were Representative Roberts; Metro West Fire Protection District; Robertson Fire Protection District; Ambulance District Association of Missouri; Missouri Ambulance Association; Missouri College of Emergency Physicians; and Missouri Fire Service Alliance.
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: