Rep. Kerry “Bubba” Underwood, R-Tuscumbia, speaks to people on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives before the start of the session on May 2, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Underwood has introduced a bill that would ban those convicted of sexual offenses from working as first responders. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama lawmaker has prefiled a bill that would prevent people convicted of a sexual offense from taking a job or volunteering as a first responder.
HB 27, sponsored Rep. Kerry Underwood, R-Tuscumbia, prohibits sex offenders from accepting or volunteering to be a first line responder such as a paramedic, firefighter, rescue squad member, or “in the course of his or her professional duties, responds to fire, medical, hazardous material, or other similar emergencies, whether compensated or not.”
“There is just a loophole that we have allowed in the law when it comes to sex offenders,” Underwood said in an interview Thursday. “Although they are precluded from being in certain buildings, certain locations, due to the proximity of children, they are precluded from that in the law, but if they are a first responder, or a volunteer, and there is a fire in a school, then everybody is going to roll. We are almost giving them permission to enter a facility they are otherwise banned from going into.”
A similar bill passed the House in last spring’s legislative session but did not get out of the Senate.
Knowingly violating the law would be a Class C felony for the person convicted of the offense, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The bill says that the punishment would “not create liability” for any employer or volunteer organization of first responders.
State law currently bans those convicted of sexual offenses from volunteering or accepting a position at a school, child care facility or mobile vending business that provides services to children.
Alabama law also bans sexual offenders from working or volunteering within 2,000 feet of a school or child care facility, or, if convicted of a sexual offense involving a minor, working or volunteering within 500 feet of a playground, park or athletic facility.
“Similarly, when you think of first responders, there could be minors involved and, depending on the situation, there may or may not be guardians around,” said Elizabeth L. Jeglic, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who studies sexual violence prevention, sexual abuse and sexual grooming. “While I have no data that suggests that first responders may abuse children, they would then have access. If they have that background, given what we know about it, they would be at increased risk versus someone who doesn’t have that background.”
The Alabama Legislature is scheduled to begin its 2025 session in February.