Senate Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin speaks during a committee meeting in the Senate office building in Columbia, S.C. on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. (File photo by Travis Bell/STATEHOUSE CAROLINA/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — Legislation that allows law enforcement to arrest people who come within a 25-foot perimeter advanced to the Senate floor Tuesday with bipartisan support.
The proposal, dubbed the “Helping Alleviate Lawful Obstruction (HALO) Act,” threatens jail time for approaching on-duty officers or paramedics after receiving a warning to get back.
Only two of the six Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted against it. All Republicans voted for it.
The House passed its own version of the bill last week.
During a long floor debate, Democrats argued 25 feet is an impractical distance, particularly when officers are entering crowded city blocks. But the vote was an overwhelming 95-18, with 11 Democrats voting “yes” and two Republicans voting “no.”
Sen. Jeff Zell, the main sponsor of the Senate bill, told his colleagues the bill’s purpose is to protect emergency health care workers and firefighters.
“It’s a tool designed to ensure that the space around — the ‘halo’ around — the ensuing emergency is able to be enforced,” said the Sumter Republican.
Under both the House and Senate bills, anyone who disregards an order to get back and comes within 25 feet to interfere, harm or harass a first responder could be punished with up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.
Sen. Deon Tedder, D-North Charleston, said he worries the 25-foot requirement would make it harder for someone to record a police officer who may be violating someone’s rights, especially if the bystander has an older cellphone that records fuzzy images at long distances.
“This is very pertinent information in evidence that can, oftentimes, have shown a separate story of what’s told and written in a police report,” Tedder, who voted “no.” said of bystander recordings.
The other “no” vote came from Charleston Democrat Ed Sutton.
Opponents have cited the 2015 death of Walter Scott, an unarmed Black man in North Charleston shot in the back eight times as he was running away from an officer. A bystander’s cellphone video contradicted the officer’s story and led to his 20-year prison sentence.
Two months after Scott’s death, the Legislature passed a law encouraging all law enforcement agencies to wear body cameras and creating a state grant program to fund them.
Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
