Relating to criminal acts against persons in certain occupations, including testing for communicable diseases for certain persons who have committed an assault against a member of a protected occupation, certain public safety personnel, including confidentiality of peer support communications for public safety officers and civilian employees, and obstructing first responders, and providing penalties

Description

House File 2751 creates a new criminal offense, modifies criminal penalties related to assaults against certain occupations, and establishes confidentiality protections for peer support communications involving public safety personnel. The Bill creates the offense of obstructing a first responder after warning. A first responder includes a law enforcement officer, a probation or parole officer, a fire fighter, or an emergency medical care provider. The Bill prohibits a person from knowingly and willfully approaching or remaining within 25 feet of a first responder after receiving a verbal warning not to approach when the person intends to impede or interfere with the first responder’s duties, threaten the first responder with physical harm, or harass the first responder. The penalty for this offense is a serious misdemeanor. The Bill allows victims exposed to bodily fluids during an assault to request a court order requiring an offender to be tested for communicable diseases, with results provided to the victim. The Bill also establishes privileges for confidential peer support communications by public safety personnel.

Background

A serious misdemeanor is punishable by confinement of no more than one year and a fine of at least $430 but not to exceed $2,560.

Iowa Code section 622.10 provides certain evidentiary privileges that limit the disclosure of confidential communications. The Bill creates a new statutory privilege for peer support communications involving public safety personnel.

Assumptions

• The following will not change over the projection period: charge, conviction, and sentencing patterns and trends; prisoner length of stay (LOS); revocation rates; plea bargaining; and other criminal justice system policies and practices.
• County jail data is unavailable. For purposes of this analysis, the marginal cost for county jails is assumed to be $50 per day.
• Conviction data reflects the total number of convictions in adult court, which may include multiple convictions per individual. Not all convictions lead to incarceration, and there may be a delay between conviction and prison admission, which can contribute to differences in totals.
• A six-month delay is assumed from the effective date of the Bill to the date the first offender will enter the correctional system.
• Offender-based convictions are a count of individuals convicted of the same offense. Each offender is counted only once per Iowa Code section, regardless of the number of individual convictions.
• Admissions are a count of individuals newly admitted to the Department of Corrections (DOC) for supervision during a selected time period, based on the most serious offense committed.
• The number of cases that may involve communicable disease testing is unknown.

Correctional Impact

House File 2751 creates a new offense. The correctional impact cannot be determined because the number of new convictions under the Bill is unknown. Figure 1 shows estimates for sentencing to State prison, parole, probation, or Community-Based Corrections (CBC) residential facilities; LOS in months under those supervisions; and supervision marginal costs per day for a serious misdemeanor.

Figure 1 — Sentencing Estimates and LOS in Months

Conviction Offense Class

Percent

Ordered to

State

Prison

FY 2025 Avg

LOS in

Prison (All Releases)

Marginal

Cost Per

Day

Prison

Percent

Ordered to

Probation

FY 2025

Field Avg

LOS on

Probation

Avg Cost

Per Day

Probation

Marginal

Cost Per

Day CBC

Marginal

Cost Per

Day Jail

FY 2025

Field Avg

LOS on

Parole

Marginal

Cost Per

Day Parole

Serious Misdemeanor 2.3% 7.3 $23.07 44.8% 21.0 $8.00 $16.35 $50.00 N/A $8.00 Refer to the Legislative Services Agency (LSA) memo addressed to the General Assembly, Cost Estimates Used for Correctional Impact Statements, dated January 12, 2026, for information related to the correctional system.

Minority Impact

House File 2751 creates a new offense and, as a result, existing data cannot be used to estimate the minority impact of the Bill. Refer to the LSA memo addressed to the General Assembly, Minority Impact Statements, dated January 12, 2026, for information related to minorities in the criminal justice system.

Fiscal Impact

The fiscal impact for House File 2751 cannot be determined because the number of new convictions is unknown. The average State cost per serious misdemeanor is between $350 and $6,200. This includes operating costs incurred by the Judicial Branch, the Indigent Defense Fund, and the DOC. The costs would be incurred across multiple fiscal years for prison and parole supervision.

Sources

• Department of Corrections
• Division of Data, Planning, and Improvement (DPI), Department of Management (DOM)