Phone locater bill sails in House

Measure touted as lifesaving aid

Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, asks a question Friday of Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, on the floor of the House. Mayberry favored and Walker opposed legislation giving law enforcement access to certain cellphone data during emergencies; the proposal passed.
Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, asks a question Friday of Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, on the floor of the House. Mayberry favored and Walker opposed legislation giving law enforcement access to certain cellphone data during emergencies; the proposal passed.

The Arkansas House of Representatives passed a bill Friday that would require cellphone carriers to immediately release the location of a cellphone to law enforcement agencies in the event of an emergency.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

State Rep. Rebecca Petty said her bill requiring cellphone carriers to release information to law enforcement officials was a potential lifesaver.

A House committee also pushed forward two pieces of legislation that would call for a federal balanced-budget amendment.

Rep. Rebecca Petty, R-Rogers, said her measure, House Bill 1315, would expedite the relay of potentially lifesaving information from phone companies that could be used in helping locate someone who has been kidnapped or is otherwise in peril.

During discussion, Petty, whose daughter was murdered in 1999, brought up the story of a Kansas teenager, Kelsey Smith, who was kidnapped outside a Target store in 2007.

Despite evidence that she had been kidnapped, it took four days for law enforcement officers to obtain the location of her cellphone from her wireless carrier.

Once they had it, it took them 45 minutes to find Smith, who was dead.

"For four days, her family waited before this information was finally released to law enforcement. ... As a mother who has gone through the same thing of having a daughter missing for three days, I know what the Smith family was going through. The not knowing destroys families," Petty said. "Who better to make a decision on a life-threatening emergency? Police? Or a customer service representative at 2 a.m. on a Saturday?"

Similar laws have been enacted in 17 states, and a federal version of Petty's bill remains in a congressional committee.

The laws, though, have some critics, including civil-rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, who say law enforcement officers can already obtain the information with a judge's permission.

Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, said Friday that he appreciated Petty's intent, but said he worried that as law it would violate rights to privacy and freedom from searches without warrants.

"I think the bill eliminates constitutional safeguards," Walker said. "We should not be moved by the passion of the moment."

Walker said it wasn't too difficult to imagine a situation where a law enforcement officer could feign an "emergency situation" to get information on a citizen's phone or, as he pointed out, do a favor for a friend or a "jealous husband" to provide information without any court or magistrate monitoring the exchange of information.

"The invasion by the state, or any agent of the state, without any kind of judicial intervention is anathema to the laws of the state and contrary to the Bill of Rights," he said. "I don't think it's appropriate for us to empower hundreds of thousands of persons, who work as policemen ... to be able to invade and rape the Fourth Amendment and the Bill of Rights."

The House approved the bill 70-8. There were 20 representatives who did not vote and two who voted "present."

In other action, the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee voted for two pieces of legislation that seek to add an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would require Congress to pass a balanced budget every year.

HB1006, by Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, would enter Arkansas into an interstate compact to agree to trigger a process to prompt Congress to consider and ratify a balanced-budget amendment.

There are already two states in Bell's proposed compact, Alaska and Georgia, and there are several more considering similar legislation.

It would take 38 states to join the compact to trigger action on the proposed federal amendment.

House Joint Resolution 1003, by Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, also seeks to enact a federal balanced-budget amendment through a different means.

Ballinger's legislation, if passed, would use Article V of the U.S. Constitution to ask Congress to hold a constitutional convention in order to ratify proposed amendments to "impose fiscal restraints on the federal government" as well as limit the power of the federal government and enact term limits for members of Congress.

Ballinger said 38 states are working on similar legislation as a part of a national push through the states to put limits on federal spending.

It would take 34 states to call for the convention, and it would take the support of delegations from 38 states to ratify any amendments.

Some legislators questioned the need for such legislation while others voiced concern that a constitutional convention could propose changes beyond those envisioned by Ballinger.

Both measures will go to the full House for consideration.

The House and Senate will both reconvene at 1:30 p.m. Monday.

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