2026 Session Week 4 Summary

The key bill I told you about last week that got stuck in conference committee last year, HB2347, was signed by the Governor and will become law on July 1. This is the bill that included several important bills for us last year, including: Changing the culpability for possession of stolen property from “knew” to “knew or should have known”; making theft of a motor vehicle valued between $500 and $1500 a felony; changing the first offense of buying sexual relations to a felony; including gift card fraud in the criminal use of a financial card crime; and unlawful use of a laser pointer against law enforcement or an aircraft.

A copy of the schedule for committee activities this coming week is available at this link. The notes in red indicate which ones we plan to testify at and our position on each. As you can see in this document, the pace of hearings is picking up quickly.

You can see the full slate of active law enforcement related bills for this session at this link.
NOTE: This link is a permanent link for this session. It is automatically updated by the software the association uses to track bills. It also now has a place you can send feedback to me. In the block for your name also include “KPOA” and your agency after your name (abbreviations are fine, such as “SNSO.” If you are members of more than one agency, you can indicate that after your name by adding “KACP” or “KSA.”

This list is sorted alphabetically by the entry in the “groups” column (criminal, traffic, criminal procedure, etc.).

The priorities are labeled 1 through 5.
1=Our bill
2=Not our bill-Strong position (support or oppose)
3=Not our bill-Important position or identified change needed
4=Not our bill-Important position with no change needed
5=Not our bill-no testimony needed

There were 223 new bills introduced this week, 54 of those are of interest to law enforcement that I will track and are reflected in the reports above. Few of them will move forward or need our testimony. This flood of new bills is reflective in the number of hearings scheduled for next week. See the list of law new bills of law interest to law enforcement at this link.

Last week we provided the following testimony:

• HB2518 Amending the breach of privacy statute, K.S.A. 21-6101. Proponent
• HB2444 Sentencing provision amendment related to time served, repeat felony offenders, downward departures, pretrial release on new felony crimes committed while on probation, parole, or pretrial release on prior felony. Proponent
• HB2522 Allowing blue lights on construction vehicles. Opposed
• HB2589 Amending law on reports of child abuse and neglect. Restricting reports from people who decline to provide their identity and other personal information. Neutral voicing concerns.
• HB2594 Amending the blackmail statute, K.S.A. 21-5428. Proponent
• HB2537 Amending the sexual extortion statute, K.S.A. 21-5515. Proponent