Bill Text - SB58 (2023)

Relative to arrests without a warrant while in the care of a medical professional on the premises of a residential care or health care facility.


Revision: Sept. 5, 2023, 1:57 p.m.

SB 58 - AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE

 

03/30/2023   1226s

2023 SESSION

23-0797

04/07

 

SENATE BILL 58

 

AN ACT relative to arrests without a warrant while in the care of a medical professional on the premises of a residential care or health care facility.

 

SPONSORS: Sen. Gray, Dist 6; Sen. Bradley, Dist 3; Sen. Gannon, Dist 23; Sen. Carson, Dist 14; Sen. Rosenwald, Dist 13

 

COMMITTEE: Judiciary

 

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AMENDED ANALYSIS

 

This bill allows for health care providers to reasonably detain any person believed to have committed certain offenses against health care providers, or patients actively receiving treatment by a health care provider, at a licensed health care facility as long as necessary to surrender the person to a peace officer.

 

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

03/30/2023   1226s 23-0797

04/07

 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Three

 

AN ACT relative to arrests without a warrant while in the care of a medical professional on the premises of a residential care or health care facility.

 

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

 

1  Criminal Code; Justification; Use of Force by Merchants, Motion Picture Theater Owners, and Health Care Providers.  Amend RSA 627:8-a to read as follows:

627:8-a  Use of Force by Merchants, Motion Picture Theater Owners, and Health Care Providers.

I.  A merchant, or his or her agent, is justified in detaining any person who he or she has reasonable grounds to believe has committed the offense of willful concealment, as defined by RSA 637:3-a, on his or her premises as long as necessary to surrender the person to a peace officer, provided such detention is conducted in a reasonable manner.

II.  A motion picture theater owner, or his or her agent, is justified in detaining any person who he or she has reasonable grounds to believe has committed the offense of unauthorized recording in a motion picture theater on his or her premises, as defined by RSA 644:19, as long as necessary to surrender the person to a peace officer, provided such detention is conducted in a reasonable manner.

III.  A health care provider, or his agent, is justified in detaining any person who he or she has reasonable grounds to believe has committed an assault offense, as defined in RSA 631:1, 631:2, 631:2-a, domestic violence as defined in RSA 631:2-b, or criminal threatening as defined in RSA 631:4 against a health care provider or a patient actively receiving treatment by a health care provider, in a health care facility licensed under RSA 151:2, as long as necessary to surrender the person to a peace officer, provided such detention is conducted in a reasonable manner.

IV.  Notwithstanding RSA 594:10, a peace officer may arrest a person who has been detained pursuant to this section, without a warrant, if the peace officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed the offense [of willful concealment] identified in paragraphs I, II, or III of this section and if the merchant, motion picture theater owner, or health care provider, or his or her agent witnessed the offense or, in the case of paragraph I of this section, if the unlawfully obtained goods or merchandise of the store were recovered from the person.

2  Effective Date.  This act shall take effect upon its passage.