Public Safety

Public safety is a top priority for Senator Murray. From providing additional funding for local law enforcement and emergency services to securing the passage of Nicole’s Law, Senator Murray has been a leading voice for numerous public safety initiatives.

Senator Murray’s public safety efforts include:

• Advancing measures to ban texting while driving and make it a primary offense for all motor vehicle operators, including those in public transit.

• Spearheading efforts to pass a texting loophole bill making it illegal to send "lewd" electronic messages to minors. This will change the current law against harming minors to include “any electronic communication including but not limited to electronic email, instant messages, text messages, and any other communication created by means of use of the Internet or wireless network, whether by computer, telephone, or any other device.”

• Successfully securing the passage of Nicole’s Law requiring all residences in Massachusetts to have working carbon monoxide detectors.
• Supporting Melanie’s Law to help combat drunk driving by keeping repeat offenders off the streets. 
• Providing additional community policing funding for communities in the Plymouth and Barnstable District, totaling over $400,000 for fiscal year 2007.
• Providing funding in the fiscal year 2007 budget to provide two additional State Police patrols in both Myles Standish State Forest from Labor Day to Memorial Day and an additional patrol along Scenic Highway in Bourne and Route 3 from Thursday through Sunday morning.
• Securing $1 million for Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR) as part of the fiscal year 2006 supplemental budget for the planning of future missions and the development of a homeland security training center.

• Successfully persuaded the Governor to deploy National Guard troops at the Pilgrim Nuclear plant. In order to keep National Guard troops at the gate and keep our communities safe, she also included funding for that specific mission. When the mission was complete, Murray worked with state and local law enforcement to ensure continued safety.

• Supporting legislation to qualify harbormasters as first responders. If passed would allow harbormasters to receive homeland security training and make them eligible for homeland security grants. 
• Working to pass anti-gang violence legislation that includes programs to keep kids out of gangs and protect witnesses of gang violence. Over the past several years, gang violence has exploded in urban areas and is beginning to move beyond the cities to rural areas. This legislation aims to curb gang violence before it spirals out of control.
• Working with the U.S. Coast Guard to restrict ocean access to Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
• Pressing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to federalize security and the FAA to institute a no-fly zone around the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
• Persuading the Department of Public Health to obtain Potassium Iodide from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for all communities within the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone.
• Leading efforts for legislation to expand Potassium Iodide distribution to Cape Cod and the Islands.
• Supporting measures to create the specific crime of terrorism as well as other legal tools to assist law enforcement in complex criminal investigations.

• Pushing for improved safety regulations for use of All-Terrain Vehicles. The bill requires ATVs, off-road motorcycles and snowmobiles to be registered and all operators to wear helmets. It also establishes a minimum age of use for ATVs.

• Moving to approve legislation aimed at preventing the theft of scrap metals. The bill implements regulations for secondary metal dealers including record retention, verification and prohibiting the receipt of receiving certain items and accepting false information.