(Statehouse) – You could find yourself in trouble for getting too close to a cop if they are performing their duty and reasonably believe that you being within 25 ft. of them would interfere with that duty.
The updated “police buffer law” passed the state House of Representatives Tuesday and now heads to the Senate.
The law had to be updated and rephrased after the version of it that was passed and became law in 2023 was deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge. That version made it a crime to be within 25 ft. of an officer executing the law, without regard to whether the officer deemed it interference.
Chief Kyle Prewitt of the Plainfield Police Dept. testified in favor of the new version.
“I kind of draw a similarity between this and a youths sporting event where a member of the crowd is being a little too boisterous,” said Prewitt.
“Nobody would bat an eye at an official telling that person to be quiet and, if they didn’t then be quiet, to ask that person to leave and, if it came to it, to have them escorted out of the facility. I think it’s very similar to that and we are very much supportive of it.”
(Story by Network Indiana)
