AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CRIMINAL MISCHIEF.

The House Amendment had changed 'or' to 'and' in the emergency vehicle damage provision, requiring both $5,000+ loss AND temporary inability to respond. The final Senate bill reverts to 'or,' meaning either condition alone supports a class F felony charge.

New subsection (a)(4) specifically criminalizes damaging an authorized emergency vehicle and provides detailed definitions covering fire departments, law-enforcement agencies, ambulance companies, paramedic vehicles, aircraft, watercraft, and unmanned aircraft systems.

A new class F felony penalty tier was added at (b)(1) for intentional damage to an authorized emergency vehicle resulting in $5,000+ pecuniary loss or temporary inability to respond to an emergency. This is a higher classification than the prior class G felony threshold.

New subsection (b)(5) imposes a mandatory minimum fine of at least $500 for any degree of criminal mischief committed on or along a Delaware byway as defined in Title 17, Section 101.

Throughout the section, the term 'actor' was replaced with 'person' and 'defendant' was replaced with 'person' to conform to the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. Minor punctuation corrections were also made (e.g., adding a comma after 'gas').