Sweeping Kentucky crime bill moves closer to law after advancing in Senate committee

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A controversial and wide-ranging crime bill cleared a Kentucky Senate panel Thursday, moving one step closer to reshaping state law on violent offenses, homelessness and drug charges.

House Bill 5, dubbed the "Safer Kentucky Act" by its supporters, won passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee on a mostly party line vote of 7-3. The committee's chairman, Republican Whitney Westerfield, joined Louisville Democratic Sens. Gerald Neal and Karen Berg in voting no.

The bill now moves to the Senate floor, where it could be taken up as early as Friday. Because of revisions in the Senate, the House would need to vote again on the measure before going to the governor's desk.

Among a raft of changes to state statutes, HB 5 would create criminal penalties for street camping, set spending limits for charitable bail organizations and give people with three convictions for violent crimes no chance at parole — or, in certain cases, sentence them to death.

It would add more crimes, such as carjacking, to Kentucky's list of violent offenses, increase penalties for killing a first responder and add new penalties for fentanyl-related charges, including trafficking.

The increased sanctions in the legislation might be viewed as "harsh," said Ryan Straw, vice president of the Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police, which supports the bill. But Straw told the Senate committee that the legislation will aid first responders and boost public safety.

"I can tell you that until we address these issues and maybe take a little tough love outlook on some of the crime in our state, law enforcement is going to continue to struggle to keep a hold of our community safety," he said in testimony on Zoom.

Opponents say the bill disproportionately impacts the homeless and other marginalized people, will worsen overcrowding in Kentucky jails and prisons and creates uncertain costs for the state. The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy estimates the changes in the violent offender status, for example, will cost more than $800 million over the next decade.

Critics also have raised questions about the data and studies referenced by the bill's backers. Louisville Public Media has reported that some authors of that research doubt the legislation's intended effect, while other data stems from a crime plan for Georgia and not Kentucky.

In explaining his vote against the bill, Neal said the data "appears inadequate" and the costs haven't been "sufficiently considered."

"I think that this is a quick fix for something that requires a long-term evaluation to achieve a solution," he said.

Louisville's Coalition for the Homeless appeared at Thursday's hearing in Frankfort, speaking alongside other advocates in opposition to the bill. The measure makes repeat camping in public areas, such as beneath overpasses, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail.

George Eklund, the coalition's director of education advocacy, argued the legislation will have "unintended consequences."

"The travesty is that the collateral damage in House Bill 5 stands to compound our most complex challenges without proactively preventing any of their harms," he said.

That brought pushback from Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, a judiciary committee member, who noted that lawmakers have proposed spending on programs to aid homeless Kentuckians in recent budget bills.

Among the money in the Senate's two-year spending plan, Stivers said, is $22.5 million for Louisville's Community Care Campus at South Floyd Street and East Breckinridge Street. The project spearheaded by Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg would provide services to homeless people and families.

Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, a co-sponsor of HB 5, echoed Stivers in calling lawmakers' work a "both/and" approach to fighting crime. "In Kentucky we're trying to do both treatment and put violent people away for a long time," he said.