Legislative Update

Assemblywoman
Susan Gerhardt

november 2007

Assembly District 29

Dear Friend,

This is the fourth in my ongoing series of email newsletters to provide you information on legislation passed by the 2007 Nevada Legislature.  If you do not wish to continue to receive these newsletters, please email me back and I will remove your email address.

The focus of this newsletter is public safety. As a former Metro officer, I know first-hand the importance of making sure law enforcement has the needed resources and tools to keep our communities safe. This last session, I sponsored legislation to better protect those living in senior citizen apartment complexes and to require the reporting of the theft or unusual sale of explosives that can be used to make explosive devices. We also passed legislation to combat the devastating increase in meth abuse, to better protect children and to strengthen our laws against identity theft.

Below is a list of some of the legislation we passed during the 2007 legislative session to make our communities safer. For a complete list of all legislation approved by the 74^th Nevada Legislature, visit www.leg.state.nv.us.

As always, please contact me at any time about these or any other issues. All of my contact information is included in this newsletter.  

Sincerely,

Susan

 
Making Our Communities Safer

 ●     AB 14 Allows law enforcement to better PREVENT costly and unsightly graffiti by giving them the authority to arrest someone who has a graffiti implement in certain places before the perpetrator actually commits the vandalism. The bill also enhances penalties for graffiti crimes.

●     AB 58  Expands the first-degree murder qualifications to include murder committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of abuse of an older person or vulnerable person.

●     AB 91 Requires reporting of the theft or unusual sale of explosives that can be used to make explosive devises.

●     AB 92  Expands the crimes for which a convicted person is required to submit a biological specimen to apply to all felonies, rather than certain felonies.  It also prohibits the sharing of biological specimens and certain information except under certain circumstances.

●     AB 112 Provides that persons who violate a protection order cannot receive bail for a minimum of 12 hours after their arrest if they have previously violated a protection order, have a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher, or have a controlled substance in their blood. 

●     AB 114 Requires creditors who solicit offers by mail to verify the identity of any person who accepts but has listed a different address than the mail was originally sent to. The creditors may do this by calling the person at their listed phone number or by receiving ID from the person. This also allows victims of identity fraud to bring civil suit for damages related to the crime against a public officer or employee.

●     AB 137 Increases the penalty for engaging in acts of terrorism to imprisonment for a minimum term of two years and a maximum of twenty years.  This bill also creates a new crime of delivering a "hoax substance,” defined as any item that a reasonable person would believe is a weapon of mass destruction, biological agent, radioactive agent or other lethal agent, any toxin or any delivery system for use as a weapon. 

●     AB 148 Prohibits the sale of over the counter drugs that are used to manufacture methamphetamine in places other than pharmacies, prohibits the disposition of chemical waste or debris from the manufacture of meth, and adds lithium metal and sodium metal to the list of prohibited chemicals.

●     AB 194            Allows judges to order persons with extended protective orders against them to surrender their firearms where there is a showing that there is a danger of gun violence or threats. 

●     AB 226 Creates a unit within the Office of the Attorney General to investigate and prosecute crimes of abuse, neglect, isolation, or exploitation of senior citizens and provides additional penalties for persons who commit certain crimes against older persons.

●     AB 313 Requires the Department of Education to establish a procedure for the notification, tracking, and monitoring of the status of criminals cases involving licensed teachers.

●     AB 344 Makes it a Class E felony to intentionally or knowingly make a false or misleading statement for the purpose of activating the Statewide Alert System for the Safe Return of Abducted Children (Amber alert system).

●     AB 352 Prohibits the issuance of a work card to a person working in a senior apartment complex if that person has been convicted of certain crimes, including a Class A, B or C felony, sex offenses, or crimes against senior citizens. 

●     AB 428 Makes “pretexting” a crime. Pretexting is the practice of identity thieves who fraudulently obtain personal information to later access personal records.

●     AB 579 Requires all convicted sex offenders and offenders against children to register with local law enforcement agencies before their release from prison.  If they were not imprisoned, they must register within three days of being sentenced for the offense. Also requires that the community be notified of the presence of a sex offender of all tiers.

●     SB 112 Restricts the sale and purchase of products that contain materials that can be used to manufacture methamphetamine and requires sellers of products that contain materials that can be used to manufacture methamphetamine to maintain a logbook. 

●     SB 354 Allows school police to issue traffic citations around schools, prohibits the possession of firearms at daycare centers, requires the evaluation and drug testing of a child taken into custody for possession of a firearm at school, and puts new restrictions on group housing for sex offenders.

●     SB 471 Strengthens Nevada’s sex offender laws by prohibiting a Tier 3 sex offender from knowingly being within 500 feet of a place where children congregate or living within 1000 feet of a place where children congregate, increasing penalties for sex offenders who commit a crime against a child, electronic monitoring of certain sex offenders with the sex offender paying the cost, requiring a DNA sample at the time of registration, requiring sex offenders to register at the time of release from prison.