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ARIZONA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES57th Legislature, 2nd Regular Session |
Senate: JUDE DP 4-3-0-0| Third Read 17-13-0-0-0 |
SB 1635: unlawful alert; arrests
Sponsor: Senator Kavanagh, LD 3
Committee on Judiciary
Overview
Establishes the elements of unlawful alerting, classifies it as a class 1 misdemeanor and outlines specific situations in which the offense would not apply.
History
Chapter 25 of the Arizona Criminal Code outlines offenses related to persons who escape or attempt to escape from lawful confinement and the hindering or resisting of lawful orders and actions by law enforcement officers.
A person commits hindering prosecution in the second degree if he renders assistance to another person with the intent to hinder the apprehension, prosecution, conviction or punishment of that person for any misdemeanor or petty offense. Hindering prosecution in the second degree is classified as a class 1 misdemeanor. This is changed to hindering prosecution in the first degree if the offense the other person has committed is a felony, with the classification increasing to a class 5 felony (A.R.S. §§ 13-2511; 13-2512).
For the purposes of hindering prosecution, a person renders assistance to another person by: 1) knowingly harboring or concealing the other person; 2) warning the other person of impending discovery, apprehension, prosecution or conviction; or 3) otherwise assisting the person to evade apprehension or prosecution by law enforcement (A.R.S. § 13-2510).
Provisions
1. Establishes that a person commits unlawful alerting of another person to avoid arrest if he, with the intent to hinder, delay or prevent the lawful arrest of another person, knowingly communicates information to that person of a real-time, imminent effort to arrest that person by local, state or federal law enforcement officers. (Sec. 1)
2. Specifies that the aforementioned offense does not apply to:
a. an attorney who provides legal advice to a client;
b. a person who provides information in response to a lawful request by a law enforcement officer;
c. a person's communication that is made without knowledge that the person warned is subject to arrest; or
d. a person's communication that is made without the intent to delay a lawful arrest. (Sec. 1)
3. Classifies unlawful alerting as a class 1 misdemeanor. (Sec. 1)
4. Allows the Attorney General or County Attorney of the county in which the offense occurs to prosecute violations of unlawful alerting. (Sec. 1)
5. Contains a severability clause. (Sec. 2)
6. Defines pertinent terms. (Sec. 1)
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10. Initials NM/NP SB 1635
11. 3/12/2026 Page 0 Judiciary
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