PIERRE — Threatening a police officer on Facebook could land people in jail for up to a year under the terms of a bill that passed the state Senate on Thursday.
That’s less time behind bars than the bill’s sponsor wanted.
Sen. Tim Reed, R-Brookings, presented his bill as a way to update state laws on threats of serious bodily harm or death to law enforcement to include threats made electronically.
Originally, Senate Bill 77 did three main things: include electronic threats in the existing law, affix a felony penalty of up to five years in prison to such threats, and remove the word “serious” from the definition of threatened bodily harm.
Under current law, written threats via mail are a class 1 misdemeanor.
“If you’re going to threaten harm, whether it be ink and paper or on social media, I believe the consequence should be greater than a misdemeanor,” Reed said.
Slightly more than half of his fellow senators disagreed.
Sen Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, moved to amend the bill and reduce the penalty to a class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail.