FRANKFORT, Ky. — House Republicans’ broad-reaching public safety bill, known as the Safer Kentucky Act, is one step closer to becoming law after easily passing through committee Thursday, Jan. 18. House Bill 5 passed with 13 yes votes, five no votes that included two Republicans, and one pass from Republican State Rep. Kim Moser of Taylor Mill.

What You Need To Know

  • House Republicans are working to pass a broad-reaching public safety bill 

  •  The 72-page House Bill 5 is known as the Safer Kentucky Act 

  •  During a committee meeting Thursday, several families affected by gun violence spoke in favor of its passage
  • Many advocacy organizations urged lawmakers to reconsider the bill

Ahead of the vote, several families impacted by crime spoke in favor of its passage. It included the Troutt family, whose daughter, Madelynn, was hit and killed by a man released on bail three years ago. That man’s release was secured after The Bail Project, a charitable bail organization which now functions as a policy advocacy group, paid for it.

“After she dropped Payton off for his part-time shift, she began her usual route home on Dixie Highway. It was not five minutes later after her brother was dropped off that my daughter would be hit head-on by, (a) speeding, stolen truck,” Marcy Troutt, Madelynn’s mother said as a father of another child lost to crime wiped tears from his eyes. 

“At the end of the day, it is not the Louisville Bail Project and their supporters whose lives are drastically changed and altered because of the decisions of the criminal. It is ordinarily families such as mine. While bail groups pay for those who have done a crime, it is people like myself that will pay for a lifetime,” she added.

HB 5 is aimed mostly at addressing violent crime. The 72-page bill covers a wide range of issues. It includes a three-strikes law for repeat violent offenders, enhances the crime for fleeing police, and prevents bail organizations for furnishing bail that’s over $5,000 or for people charged with a violent crime.  

“Criminals, not society, are accountable for their actions, and society has the right to protect itself from the criminal element,” State Rep. Jared Bauman, R-Louisville, said.

Some Republican lawmakers on the House committee expressed concerns with the bill’s language, as did Democrats.

“Not every county in the state has a place for someone that’s experiencing homelessness to go. And so while we do create zones in this, there may, a local jurisdiction may, create a zone. I’d like to see us go a little bit further on that,” State Rep. Steven Doan, R-Erlanger, said.

On homelessness, HB 5 criminalizes street camping. It also allows cities to designate a space where camping would be permitted, but does not require it.

Lawmakers filed a new version of the bill ahead of Thursday’s meeting with some small changes. Overall, most of the bill remains the same.

Opponents of the bill don’t believe it’s the right way to address crime.

“House Bill 5 does not help people get off the streets and into housing, and homelessness is in fact a housing problem,” said George Eklund with the Coalition for the Homeless. “We have seen a 58% raise in fair market rent since 2018. In the same time, we’ve seen a 73% increase in our homeless numbers.”

“The fact is, Kentucky is poor and Kentucky is criminalizing poverty and we will not get better that way,” Shameka Parrish-Wright with VOCAL Kentucky said.

HB 5 goes to the House floor for a vote as early as next week.

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