Sponsors (4)
The bill prioritizes faster emergency access to device location to aid timely rescues and public safety, but does so by lowering privacy and judicial safeguards and imposing compliance burdens on carriers, creating a trade-off between quicker lifesaving action and broader risks to privacy and oversight.
People facing imminent danger (including parents, families, and people with disabilities) can have their device location obtained by law enforcement more quickly when officers assert an emergency or an emergency 911 contact within a 48-hour window, enabling faster rescue and potentially life-saving responses.
Law enforcement and public-safety agencies can access available device location promptly in emergency situations without waiting for subscriber consent if efforts to obtain consent fail and delay would increase risk, creating a clear operational pathway to act in time-sensitive crises.
Agencies and officers must document requests (including officer name, justification, and consent efforts), producing an audit trail that can deter misuse and support later oversight or review.
Telecommunications users nationwide may have their device location disclosed to officers based on an officer's assertion of an emergency, reducing privacy protections for users and expanding circumstances where location data can be shared without prior judicial approval.
The standard allows disclosures based on officer assertions (including 'reasonable suspicion') rather than requiring judicial approval, increasing the risk of overbroad, erroneous, or inconsistent disclosures and potential misuse of location data.
Carriers and service providers will face increased operational and compliance burdens to promptly locate devices and maintain required records, which could raise costs that may be passed on to consumers or require provider investments.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires providers to promptly disclose available device location to officers/PSAPs in certain recent-emergency or life‑threat situations when consent was obtained or reasonable efforts were made, with required records.
Requires providers of electronic communication services to promptly disclose available location information for a telecommunications device to law enforcement officers or public safety answering point (PSAP) agents in certain emergency situations. The request may be made when the device recently contacted a PSAP (within 48 hours) or when an officer reasonably suspects the device is with someone involved in an emergency posing risk of death or serious physical harm, provided the officer asserts that consent was obtained or that reasonable efforts to obtain consent were made and delay would increase risk. The law adds new definitions for key terms, requires requesting agencies to keep a record of each request with specific elements (officer identity, declaratory statement, description of need, and how consent was handled), and preserves applicable State-law requirements for disclosure. It also sets a prioritized order for identifying "next of kin."
Introduced March 2, 2026 by Derek Schmidt · Last progress March 2, 2026