Emergency Reporting Abuse Amendments

Penalty structures were reorganized to create a tiered system where repeat offenses and reckless behavior leading to serious bodily injury or death result in higher felony charges, whereas previous versions had different categorizations for these scenarios.

A specific effective date of May 6, 2026, was added to Section 2 to clarify when the new provisions take effect.

A new Section 3 was added to coordinate this bill with S.B. 99, ensuring that if both bills pass, the final text of the statute reflects a unified set of penalties rather than conflicting provisions.

The requirement for courts to order reimbursement of costs was updated to specify 'incarceration' in the jail time option, and the coordination clause specifies a future text for Subsection (3) that includes new subsections (e) through (g) regarding additional penalty tiers.

Added a new offense for contacting 911 services when the actor knows or should know no emergency, crime, or public safety threat exists, provided they were previously informed by dispatchers or prosecutors that the situation was inappropriate for 911 calls.

Removed the definition of 'party line' and updated the 'Weapon of mass destruction' definition to appear earlier in the statute for clarity.

Reorganized penalty subsections to clearly distinguish between class B misdemeanors, class A misdemeanors, and second or third-degree felonies based on the type of false report and consequences.

Corrected grammatical errors and replaced archaic terms like 'aides' with 'aids' for consistency with modern legal drafting standards.