Kelsey Smith Act Passes Michigan House Criminal Justice Committee

Last May I began working on a piece of legislation called the Kelsey Smith Act. I became aware of the Kelsey Smith Act after reading a story about another state adopting this legislation. After reading the initial story, I began looking deeper into the story of Kelsey Smith. Before I knew it, I had been reading stories, and watching YouTube clips for over 3 hours.

Kelsey's story moved me in many ways. It is a truly heartbreaking story about an exceptional young lady who was brutally raped and murdered just 9 days after she had graduated high school. Not unlike many kids her age, she loved animals, she loved her classmates, and had a very bright future. This story also speaks of the character and fortitude of her parents, Greg and Missey Smith, and their efforts to see that what happened to their Kelsey, does not happen to others.

Greg Smith described his daughter as a young lady who could walk into a room full of strangers, and walk out with a room full of friends. At Shawnee Mission West High School, she was involved in track, theater, writer's workshop, art, and choir. Her main passion though, was marching band. Following her passion, she chose to attend Kansas State University, knowing that they had a strong marching band program.

She was just a normal young lady, growing up in the Midwest, not unlike many others. She would remind you of any girl you may know. Maybe your own daughter, maybe the girl across the street, or maybe the neighborhood girl who babysits your own children.

Kelsey Smith died just days after she graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School. She was brutally raped, and then she was murdered.

She was abducted in a Target parking lot in Overland, Kansas on June 2, 2007. She was last seen on surveillance video purchasing a gift for her boyfriend for their 6 month anniversary. Outdoor surveillance footage showed her being abducted and being forced into her car. Her car was found abandoned approximately 2 hours later in the mall parking lot across the street. Upon searching video surveillance, police noticed a suspicious 70's era pickup truck that had been parked in that same lot.

The search for her picked up steam immediately, and those searching became known as Kelsey's Army. Today, they are the Kelsey Smith Foundation.

Almost immediately, authorities contacted her cell phone company, which was Verizon. They wanted them to pinpoint her location by pinging her cell phone. All cell phone companies have the technology to do this. Under federal law, they are allowed to provide location information to authorities, without a warrant, in an emergency situation, such as an abduction or missing persons case.

The problem is that while they are allowed to do this, they are not necessarily forced to provide this information to authorities. In Kelsey's case, Verizon did not have a current policy on such a thing, and it ultimately took 4 days before they provided police, and the FBI the needed information.

They ended up telling authorities to search and area exactly 1.1 miles north of a particular cell phone tower. It then took exactly 45 minutes from the time authorities received the information to find Kelsey's body in a wooded area by a lake. So on June 6th, after four days of trying to get the cell phone location, and 9 days after she graduated, Kelsey was finally found.

I ended up speaking with Missey and Greg Smith on the phone, and after conversations with them, and after seeing what progress has been made in passing Kelsey Smith legislation, I have made it my mission to get this life saving legislation passed here in Michigan. When I started back in May, there were 9 states that had passed the Kelsey Smith Act. Today it is law in 14 states, and in the process of becoming law in 19 other states. This legislation has had overwhelming bipartisan support in every single state that it has been enacted.

This law has saved lives, and Greg Smith told me a couple of stories. His first was of a 6 year old boy in Tennessee. He was playing in his front yard, and when his Mom came out, he was missing. She called police, they immediately checked the sex offender database, and had a strong suspicion of a guy that lived nearby. Because of the Kelsey Smith Act, they were able to quickly contact the cell phone provider of the suspect, ping the location of his phone, and locate him nearby. He had this boy with him, but because they were able to locate him so quickly, they saved this boy from unspeakable acts by a 10 times convicted sex offender.

Greg Smith, who is a former police officer, and now a State Senator in Kansas, also told me of another instance where a man had a stroke, was able to push the button to dial home, but was physically unable to speak, to tell his wife where he was at. Police were able to quickly get the location of his cell phone, and get life saving personnel to him, saving his life. These are just two instances of the Kelsey Smith Act impacting, and saving lives.

Beginning The Process

Representative Kurt Heise (R. Plymouth) had a look at my original story at Plymouth-Canton Patch, and decided that it was worth investigating. After a few conversations, and having carefully studied legislation from other states, he crafted legislation that he felt would be appropriate here in Michigan. He had HB5110 (The Kelsey Smith Act) drawn up, and sponsored the bill himself. Representative Bill LaVoy (D Monroe) co-sponsored this bill.

I recently drove up to Lansing, and testified before the House Criminal Justice Committee on behalf of the Kelsey Smith Act. Representative Kurt Heise also gave testimony, as well as a Sergeant with the Michigan State Police. We were all in agreement that HB5110 would be a valuable tool for law enforcement in their efforts to save lives.

Heise said that phone companies like the legislation because it resolves confusion about how to handle emergency situations that also involve proprietary company information.

"To me, it just made sense to tell the phone company, 'Look, we have a lost person. We have a kidnapped person and we need to you to track this person down,'" Heise explained.

After consideration, the Criminal Justice Committee passed this legislation with a bipartisan vote of 9-1. They have sent it to the House Speaker, Jase Bolger for consideration, which is the next step in this process.

Where We Are Today

In order for this legislation to go up for a vote in front of the Michigan House of Representatives, Speaker Jase Bolger will have to make the decision to put this legislation forward. He alone decides what legislation goes up for a vote.

The Obstacles

There are those in the House of Representatives who are saying that this legislation is no longer needed. They contend that there is now cooperation between cell phone providers and law enforcement.

This is somewhat true with the major providers, but not on a 24/7 basis. Verizon, Sprint, AT&T have all made strides to cooperate with law enforcement in certain situations, but there are a number of others that do not.

I would also note that as Representative Heise stated, all of the major cell phone providers are 100% on board with this legislation. They want a legislation that codifies their policies with the actual law, and they want it to apply to all telecommunication providers.

Those that say that this law is not needed at this time, do not understand that most cell providers do not have trained staff present 24/7 to provide law enforcement this life saving information. If your daughter were to be abducted at 3 in the morning, or on a Sunday, when management is not there to make a decision, do you want a customer service representative who is trained in cell phone packages, and basic tech support, to have to make a life and death decision about your daughter? Without this legislation, that is e3xactly what will happen. Minutes, and hours are the difference between life and death in these situations. Waiting until the office opens on Monday, does not help.

Every single time there is an amber alert, there is a chance for the Kelsey Smith Act to save the life of a child. Every time an elderly person goes missing, there is the chance for the Kelsey Smith Act to save a life. If an elderly person with Alzheimer Disease gets lost, and that person has a cell phone in their pocket, or car, the Kelsey Smith Act enables law enforcement to get access to that persons location any time, day or night.

To those who say that there is no need for this law, I would ask, do we really want to wait until we have a tragic situation like what happened to Kelsey Smith and her family, to finally decide that this law is necessary? I think Michigan should be proactive in their efforts to protect our children and our citizens. The Kelsey Smith Act is a proactive measure, and another tool in the belt of law enforcement to save lives, and I have yet to find a law enforcement officer, or police chief that disagrees.

Plymouth Township Police Chief, Tom Tiderington communicated to me that he would indeed support this legislation.

The Kelsey Smith Act does not cost tax payers one single dime. The Kelsey Smith Act will not intrude on a person's privacy. It can only be used by law enforcement in a life and death situation.

Law enforcement can not look at your phone calls, they can not look at your texts. They can only direct a cell phone provider to give the location of a phone in a life and death situation.

Asked if there were any privacy concerns facing the bill, Heise responded, "We are not recording their messages. We're not eavesdropping." Heise added, "It's merely to locate a transmission from a cellphone."

This is life saving legislation, it has been passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in 14 other states, with many more in the process of passing it. I urge Representative Jase Bolger to bring HB5110 to the house floor for a vote.

It is absolutely the right thing to do, and I promise that it has, and will save lives...