SB2057enr 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SB2057 Enrolled LRB096 11315 KTG 21748 b

AN ACT concerning public safety.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Illinois Premise Alert Program (PAP) Act.

Section 5. Purpose. It is the policy of the State of Illinois to ensure that consistently high levels of public safety services are available to all members of the State, including people who may require special consideration in order to access services. This program shall seek to afford people with disabilities or special needs or both the same access to public safety services provided to all citizens. It is the intent of this program to offer guidance and direction to public safety workers in responding to and assisting those people with special needs or disabilities or both with whom they will have contact in the performance of their duties and responsibilities. The ability to effectively deal with special needs individuals is enhanced with knowledge or information. The ability to identify special needs individuals, their places of employment, educational facilities, and residences are valuable resources in instances when or if an emergency response by law enforcement or fire protection personnel or both are needed.

Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:

"Disability" means an individual's physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities; a record of such impairment; or when the individual is regarded as having such an impairment.

"Special needs individuals" means those individuals who have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and who also require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by individuals generally.

"Public safety agency" means a functional division of a public agency that provides firefighting, police, medical, or other emergency services.

"Computer aided dispatch" or "CAD" means a database maintained by the public safety agency or public safety answering point used in conjunction with 9-1-1 caller data.

"Premise Alert Program" or "PAP" means a computer aided dispatch database of individuals with special needs maintained by public safety agencies.

Section 15. Reporting of Special Needs Individuals.

(a) Public safety agencies shall make reasonable efforts to publicize the Premise Alert Program (PAP) database. Means of publicizing the database include, but are not limited to, pamphlets and websites.

(b) Families, caregivers, or the individuals with disabilities or special needs may contact their local law enforcement agency or fire department or fire protection district.

(c) Public safety workers are to be cognitive of special needs individuals they may come across when they respond to calls. If workers are able to identify individuals who have special needs, they shall try to ascertain as specifically as possible what that special need might be. The public safety worker should attempt to verify the special need as provided in item (2) of subsection (d).

(d) The disabled individual's name, date of birth, phone number, and residential address or place of employment should also be obtained for possible entry into the PAP database.

(1) Whenever possible, it is preferable that written permission is obtained from a parent, guardian, family member, or caregiver of the individual themselves prior to being entered into the PAP database.

(2) No individual may be entered into a PAP database unless the special need has been verified. Acceptable means of verifying a special need for purposes of this program shall include statements by:

(A) the individual,

(B) family members,

(C) friends,

(D) caregivers, or

(E) medical personnel familiar with the individual.

(e) For public safety agencies that share the same CAD database, information collected by one agency serviced by the CAD database is to be disseminated to all agencies utilizing that database.

(f) Information received at an incorrect public safety agency shall be accepted and forwarded to the correct agency as soon as possible.

(g) All information entered into the PAP database must be updated every 2 years or when such information changes.

Section 20. Provision of information to the field. When special needs information comes up in a CAD database, the telecommunicator shall relay that information to responding personnel.

Section 24. Data control. Any person designated by a public safety agency to control data entered into the PAP database shall develop policies and procedures for the control of such data.

Section 25. Confidentiality. The information gathered as part of PAP shall remain strictly confidential. The information shall be used only to provide assistance to emergency medical and police responders. No public safety worker shall knowingly violate this confidentiality clause. Citizens who believe their health privacy rights have been violated may file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) via the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

Section 30. Liability. Except for willful or wanton misconduct, a public safety agency shall not be subject to civil liabilities for duties relating to the reporting of special needs individuals.

Section 35. Citizen advisory. Citizens electing to participate in PAP must be advised that the provision of special needs information will not result in preferential treatment.

Section 40. Duration of program. The establishment and continued existence of PAP shall be based on funding availability.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.