To be effective, law enforcement officers must keep current with changes in the criminal laws. In this year’s session, many criminal offenses were amended and new ones added.
Some amendments to existing criminal offenses include:
Aiding a juvenile to commit a weapons offense is a violation of the crime of endangering the welfare of a child.
If a child is absent from school due to participating in a criminal trial, due to mental or behavioral health issues, or due to attending a FPE (family paced education) school, the parent or guardian has not violated the compulsory school attendance law.
A defendant can be subject to an extended term of imprisonment as a persistent offender if the defendant has one prior conviction for a dangerous felony.
The punishment for unlawful possession of a firearm has increased, especially for those with a prior conviction for that offense or for a dangerous felony.
New offenses include:
Criminal mischief, based on unlawfully occupying someone else’s residence.
Aggravating fleeing a stop or detention of a motor vehicle, which varies in severity depending on the risk of injury or actual injury to others.
Delivery or distribution of a controlled substance causing serious physical injury or death, designed to deter and punish drug dealers who knowingly sell combinations of drugs (such as fentanyl mixed with other controlled substances) to users.
Unlawful discharge of a firearm within or into the limits of a municipality, also known as Blair’s Law after the young girl killed by celebratory gunfire in Kansas City.
Felony violations of the Money Transmission and Modernization Act of 2024.
Some other changes include increased authority for law enforcement to request audits of governmental agencies suspected of wrongdoing, restrictions on when a juvenile may be certified as an adult and be paroled, changes to expungement of criminal records, and the creation of a state task force to help peace officers combat cyberstalking and harassment.
Interested in learning more?
PLS offers police online self-study legal training link: https://www.policelegalsciences.com/ on a wide variety of practical issues to help police officers make good decisions in challenging situations.
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