WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

‘Kelsey Smith Act’ featured in KIRO TV news story

KelseySmithPhotoPrime-sponsored by state Rep. John McCoy, the “Kelsey Smith Act” contained in House Bill 1897 would require wireless-telecommunications providers to provide call-location information for cell phones in an emergency.

Such information would be given out only to law-enforcement folks, and it couldn’t be used for any reason other than an emergency-response.

One day in June 2007, a young Kansas woman named Kelsey Smith was abducted from a department store. Her cell-phone signal was picked up an hour after Ms. Smith was kidnapped. Although police sought the signal-location information from the cell-phone company, those records weren’t turned over to them for more than three days.

By then, Ms. Smith had been strangled, her lifeless body found just 45 minutes after police finally received the cell-phone location they’d originally sought.

KIRO TV news recently did this story about the Kelsey Smith Act.