Convicted sex offenders could not be first responders under legislation pre-filed in the Alabama Legislature.
State law already prohibits sex offenders from working in schools, child care centers or other businesses that cater primarily to children.
Rep. Kerry Underwood, R-Tuscumbia, said the law needs to be amended to cover first responders, including those at volunteer fire departments.
“Without (this legislation) for that particular offender, we are basically opening the door and saying, you’re a first responder, if there’s a medical need, you can go into this day care, you can go into this facility,” Underwood said. “We want to make sure we don’t give them an opportunity to do that.”
House Bill 27 defines a first responder as a “paramedic, firefighter, rescue squad member, emergency medical technician, or other individual who, in the course of his or her professional duties, responds to fire, medical, hazardous material, or other similar emergencies, whether compensated or not.”
Violation of the law would be a Class C felony, but the legislation does not hold employers liable for hiring offenders.
The Alabama Association of Volunteer Fire Departments wants the bill to become law.
“We’ve had a couple of instances across the state where some (departments) had a little problem or two and had no way to address it,” association President Billy Doss told Alabama Daily News. “… It’s time to do this so we have something to fall back on in case it comes up again.
“We appreciate people volunteering, but some people with certain backgrounds, we don’t need them around other people.”
Underwood said a situation involving a volunteer firefighter in Colbert County spurred the legislation.
‘I want to protect someone’
A registered sex offender is volunteering at the Colbert Heights Volunteer Fire Department, convicted in 2019 of sexual abuse in the first degree. His victim was under the age of 16, according to the state’s sex offender registry.
The victim is now 21 and advocating for this bill. She plans to be at the State House next year when it’s discussed in committee.
Alabama Daily News is not disclosing in this story the name of the victim, the perpetrator or details of the abuse.
The woman is now studying criminal justice in college and doesn’t think her abuser should have any access to those in vulnerable positions, especially children.
“I want to protect someone from going through what I went through,” she said. “I’m not over it, but I’m starting to see the other side of it and I want to protect somebody from having to go through that, to find the better side of it.”
Colbert Heights Chief E.J. Lindblom defended his volunteer’s service to the department. He volunteered at the department before his arrest and guilty plea.
“I’ve got nothing to hide,” Lindblom said. He said he’s been told by the county sheriff and a parole officer that the offender is allowed to volunteer within the department.
“He don’t go on no calls by himself,” Lindblom said. “He don’t go on no medical calls, just wrecks and structure fires, grassy wood fires.”
“… I’m within the law.”
He said he’s aware of other firemen elsewhere currently getting away with sexual harassment “and sending pictures to young kids.”
“Nothing’s happening to them,” he said. “They’re out here fighting fires and going on medical calls and everything else,” Lindblom said. “… There’s more than just one who’s done his time and is minding his P’s and Q’s. You better worry about the ones who are doing it now and getting away with it.”
Underwood sponsored the same bill this year and it was approved by the House and a Senate committee, but died without a final vote when the session ended amid an attempt to pass a massive gambling bill.
“We were all focused on that piece of legislation, it consumed our session in a lot of ways,” Underwood said. “I’m hoping we can move more applicable and important bills (in the 2025 session.)”
The 2025 legislative session begins in February.