Edwards vetoes bill creating 25-foot buffer zone for police officers

BATON ROUGE (WVUE) - Governor John Bel Edwards vetoed a bill to make it a misdemeanor crime to be within 25 feet of a law enforcement officer who is on the job and orders you to step back.

Advocates had raised First Amendment concerns related to the legislation, while the bill’s sponsor said he was just trying to back police officers.

House Bill 85, filed by Pineville Republican Representative Mike Johnson, would have made it a crime to “knowingly or intentionally approach within twenty-five feet of a law enforcement officer who is lawfully engaged in the execution of his official duties after the law enforcement officer has ordered the person to stop approaching or to retreat.”

“Crime is out of control, and part of the problem is that our police officers, the law enforcement, are in many cases themselves subject to crime against them as they try to do their job,” Johnson said. “This bill simply said, if you’re in a situation where you’re doing your job, you’re investigating crime and you feel endangered or in danger, you have the right to request anyone that’s around you to please back up.”

But critics, like the ACLU of Louisiana, said the bill opened the door for the state to face lawsuits on the basis of its constitutionality.

“By the bill author’s own admission, it would have covered a lot of First Amendment protected activity that had nothing to do with interfering with police officers,” said Chris Kaiser, Advocacy Director for ACLU Louisiana. “We all, as citizens of the United States, have a fundamental right to observe peacefully government officials, including police, who are engaged in their duties.”

Kaiser said the ACLU would have been one of the groups interested in joining in a lawsuit.

“There needs to be a balance struck between officer’s safety and their duties, and all of our fundamental constitutional rights to move freely and to observe government officials,” he said.

In his veto letter, Governor Edwards notes legislation already exists to prevent interference in law enforcement investigations.

“The effect of this bill were it to become law would be to chill exercise of First Amendment rights and prevent bystanders from observing and recording police action,” Edwards writes. “Each of us has a constitutional right to freely observe public servants as they function in public and within the course and scope of their official duties.”

Johnson said he plans to reintroduce the bill next year.

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