[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S770-S771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
By Mr. ROBERTS (for himself, Mr. Moran, Mr. Blunt, and Mrs.
Fischer):
S. 273. A bill to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require
providers of a covered service to provide location information
concerning the telecommunications device of a user of such service to
an investigative or law enforcement officer or an employee or other
agent of a public safety answering point in an emergency situation
involving risk of death or serious physical harm or in order to respond
to the user's call for emergency services; to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about an important
piece of legislation I just filed, aptly named after the young Kansan
whose life and bright future was cut short by a senseless act of
violence and whose case now is the inspiration for why we desperately
need to update the law.
Almost 12 years ago, on June 2, 2017, 18-year-old Kelsey Smith was
abducted in broad daylight from an Overland Park, KS, parking lot.
Kelsey's abduction was captured on the store's closed-circuit security
camera, which left little doubt about the emergency sense of the
situation. This was an emergency.
Here is the tragedy. Four days after Kelsey disappeared, authorities
were able to locate her body after a wireless provider finally released
the call information from her cell phone--4 critical days. Providing
location information as fast as possible is absolutely critical to
ensure that law enforcement officials can rescue victims in imminent
danger of death or serious physical harm and hopefully prevent future
fates similar to Kelsey's.
This legislation is the culmination of years of work among
legislators at both the Federal and State levels, including industry
stakeholders, privacy advocates, and, most importantly, Kelsey's brave
parents, who spearheaded this initiative and have advocated to create
commonsense reforms that properly balance the needs of law enforcement
with Fourth Amendment protections for all of our citizens.
Through their advocacy and tireless efforts, Missey and Greg Smith
have helped enact laws, oftentimes with unanimous support, in 23
States, including my home State of Kansas. This law provides law
enforcement with the necessary tools to rescue individuals in emergency
situations where the threat of death or serious bodily injury is
imminent.
The impact of this law at the State level has been real and
measurable. For example, in May 2012, one month after the enactment of
its State's version of the Kelsey Smith Act, local authorities in
Tennessee were successful in saving the life of a child who had been
abducted by a suspected child rapist. Because the child was believed to
be in imminent danger, the police were able to successfully receive the
location of the suspect's cell phone in a window of time that led to
the safe recovery of the child alive and before she was assaulted.
In February of 2015, Kelsey's Law helped save the life of a 5-month-
old Lenexa, KS, girl when a car with a baby in the back seat was stolen
from its mother. Through Kelsey's Law, police were able to ping that
mother's phone, which was left in the car, and, within an hour, the
baby was reunited with her parents.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,
the first 3 hours are critical to recovering a child alive. That is why
it is necessary that in these narrowly defined, isolated instances in
which a person's very life is at stake, an exemption should be made to
allow wireless carriers to immediately ping an individual's phone and
release to law enforcement the whereabouts of that individual.
Understanding this, my legislation would provide law enforcement with
the ability to recover the location of children, other missing
individuals, and only in very specific emergency situations; namely,
where there is risk of death or serious bodily injury.
Don't just take it from Pat Roberts. Public safety professionals with
experience in the field support this lifesaving legislation. According
to the retired Johnson County sheriff, Frank Denning:
Time is of the essence in these types of incidents and the
narrow exception for law enforcement to act with immediacy is
key here. For this not to be a Federal law seems unjust to
those who have loved ones in harm's way and this type of
intervention can and will save lives.
Major Scott Boden with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Kansas
says:
Over my 22-year law enforcement career with the Johnson
County Sheriff's Office, 17 years have been spent in our
dispatch/911 center. During that time, the Kelsey Smith Law
has been the single most important piece of legislation
related to potentially saving the lives of suicidal subjects,
assisting endangered children, and addressing live threats
when cell phone location is necessary and seconds count. The
difference this law has made cannot be overstated and I look
forward to the day it becomes available all across this
country as a resource to assist first responders in their
most critical service saving lives.
Jennifer Lanter, the 9-1-1 director for Loudon County, TN, says:
In Tennessee, we have had the privilege of having Kelsey's
Law enacted for several years. There are multiple examples of
how utilizing this law has resulted in lives being saved that
otherwise would have been lost.
This law enables the men and women that have dedicated
their lives to the protection of others to ensure they are
able to do everything possible to locate someone that needs
help. The benefits of this law being passed at the Federal
level will be far-reaching, and countless lives will be
saved.
It is not just these individual law enforcement officials who support
this bill. The bill is also supported by the National District
Attorneys Association, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers
Association, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the International
Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major County Sheriffs of America,
the National Association of Police Organizations, the Fraternal Order
of Police,
[[Page S771]]
and the National Sheriffs' Association. I don't know of any law
enforcement organization that has been left out, and if it has been
left out, it would certainly support the bill. CTIA, the wireless
association, also supports this commonsense legislation.
Just this morning, I received a letter of support from John Walsh,
who is the cofounder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children and was the well-known host of the television show,
``America's Most Wanted.'' Mr. Walsh has dedicated his life to
advocating for victims' rights. It began with his fight for the passage
of the Missing Children's Assistance Act following the abduction and
subsequent murder of his son Adam.
Fortunately, for my colleagues, voting for this bill will not take a
blind leap of faith. Kelsey's Law is already saving lives in States
like Kansas, New Jersey, Nebraska, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North
Dakota, Tennessee, Hawaii, Missouri, Utah, West Virginia, Colorado,
Nevada, Rhode Island, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Iowa, Washington,
Louisiana, Delaware, Indiana, and Alabama. Yes, I wanted to repeat all
23.
Oftentimes, the approval by State legislatures has been unanimous,
and that is because Kelsey's Law strikes the appropriate balance
between ensuring that law enforcement has the tools it needs to help
individuals who are in grave danger and ensuring that the proper checks
are in place to guard against government overreach.
My legislation requires all law enforcement agencies to maintain a
record of all requests made under the Kelsey Smith Act. This record
will include the name of the officer who is requesting location
information from a wireless carrier, a description of the request that
explains the need for the disclosure of location information, and a
declaration that an individual's location information is needed in
order to offer him life assistance during an emergency situation that,
again, involves a risk of death or serious physical harm.
I stress that nothing--absolutely nothing--in the Kelsey Smith Act
prohibits wireless carriers from continuing to operate the robust law
enforcement verification systems that they use today in order to make
absolutely certain that when a request is made, it is coming from an
authorized law enforcement official.
Kelsey was never given the opportunity to attend college or to get
married or to have children and experience the American dream that many
of us take for granted every day. Yet what she did do was to inspire
her mother and her father to make it their mission in life to help
educate and empower communities and children in order to help prevent
another case like this from ever happening again.
Kelsey's father, Greg, who is a former law enforcement officer
himself and a Kansas State senator, said it best when he quoted
President Abraham Lincoln to describe what Kelsey had accomplished:
In the end, it is not the years in your life that count. It
is the life in your years.
I thank my colleagues for the opportunity to speak on the floor today
and to offer what, I think, is a commonsense bill that will help
prevent tragedies like Kelsey's. I also thank Senator Moran, Senator
Fischer, and Senator Blunt for their strong support and cosponsoring of
this bill. I welcome the President's support as well.
I ask every colleague in this body to consider one question: If it
were your children, your grandchildren, your spouses, would you not
want law enforcement to have immediate access to information that could
potentially save their lives and bring them home?
Let's honor Kelsey's memory by passing this legislation in Congress.
I see no reason why it could not pass by unanimous consent.
I thank the Presiding Officer.
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