Public Act 096-0788
 		





SB2057 Enrolled
LRB096 11315 KTG 21748 b






    AN ACT concerning public safety.

 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
 
represented in the General Assembly:




 
    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the 
Illinois Premise Alert Program (PAP) Act.
 
    Section 5. Purpose.  It is the policy of the State of 
Illinois to ensure that consistently high levels of public 
safety services are available to all members of the State, 
including people who may require special consideration in
order 
to access services. This program shall seek to afford people 
with disabilities or special needs or both the same access to 
public safety services provided to all citizens. It is the 
intent of this program to offer guidance and direction to 
public safety workers in responding to and assisting those 
people with special needs or disabilities or both with whom 
they will have contact in the
performance of their duties and 
responsibilities. The ability to effectively deal with special 
needs individuals is enhanced with knowledge or information. 
The ability to identify special needs individuals, their places 
of employment, educational facilities, and residences are 
valuable resources in instances when or if an emergency 
response by law enforcement or fire protection personnel or 
both are needed.

 
    Section 10. Definitions.  As used in this Act:
    "Disability" means an individual's physical or mental 
impairment that
substantially limits one or more of the major 
life activities; a record of such impairment; or when the 
individual is regarded as having such an impairment.
    "Special needs individuals" means those individuals who 
have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, 
developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and who also 
require health and related services of a type or amount beyond 
that required by individuals generally.
    "Public safety agency" means a functional division of a 
public agency that provides firefighting, police, medical, or 
other emergency services.
    "Computer aided dispatch" or "CAD" means a database 
maintained by the public safety agency or public safety 
answering point used in conjunction with 9-1-1 caller data.
    "Premise Alert Program"  or "PAP" means a computer aided 
dispatch database of individuals with special needs maintained 
by public safety agencies.

 
    Section 15. Reporting of Special Needs Individuals. 

    (a) Public safety agencies shall make reasonable efforts to 
publicize the Premise Alert Program (PAP) database. Means of 
publicizing the database include, but are not limited to, 
pamphlets and websites.
    (b) Families, caregivers, or the individuals with 
disabilities or special needs may contact their local law 
enforcement agency or fire department or fire protection 
district.
    (c) Public safety workers are to be cognitive of special 
needs individuals they may come across when they respond to 
calls. If workers are able to identify individuals who have 
special needs, they shall try to ascertain as specifically as 
possible what that special need might be. The public safety 
worker should attempt to verify the special need as provided in 
item (2) of subsection (d).
    (d) The disabled individual's name, date of birth, phone 
number, and
residential address or place of employment should 
also be obtained
for possible entry into the PAP database.
        (1) Whenever possible, it is preferable that written 
    permission is
         obtained from a parent, guardian, family 
    member, or caregiver
         of the individual themselves prior to 
    being entered into the
         PAP database.
        (2) No individual may be entered into a PAP
         database 
    unless the special need has been verified.
         Acceptable means 
    of verifying a special need for purposes
         of this program 
    shall include statements by:
            (A) the individual,
            (B) family members,
            (C) friends,
            (D) caregivers, or
            (E) medical personnel familiar with the 
        individual.
    (e) For public safety agencies that share the same CAD 
database, information collected by one agency serviced by the 
CAD database is to be disseminated to all agencies utilizing 
that database.
    (f) Information received at an incorrect public safety 
agency shall be accepted and forwarded to the correct agency as 
soon as possible.

    (g) All information entered into the PAP database must be 
updated every 2 years or when such information changes.
 
    Section 20. Provision of information to the field. 
        When 
special needs information comes up in a CAD database, the 
telecommunicator shall relay that information to responding 
personnel.

 
    Section 24. Data control. Any person designated by a public 
safety agency to control data entered into the PAP database 
shall develop policies and procedures for  the control of such 
data.
 
    Section 25. Confidentiality. 
        The information gathered as 
part of PAP shall remain strictly confidential. The information 
shall be
used only to provide assistance to emergency medical 
and police
responders. No public safety worker shall knowingly 
violate this confidentiality clause. Citizens who believe 
their health privacy rights have been violated may file a 
complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 
(DHHS) via the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

 
    Section 30. Liability. Except for willful or wanton 
misconduct, a public safety agency shall not be subject to 
civil liabilities for duties relating to the reporting of 
special needs individuals.
 
    Section 35. Citizen advisory.
      Citizens electing to 
participate in PAP must be advised that the provision of 
special needs information will not result in preferential 
treatment.




 
    Section 40. Duration of program. The establishment and 
continued existence of PAP shall be based on funding 
availability.
 

    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon 
becoming law.





Effective Date:  8/28/2009