II 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 956 

To establish a pilot program for police departments to use anonymous texts 

from citizens to augment their anonymous tip hotlines. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 11, 2011 

Mr. KERRY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To establish a pilot program for police departments to use 

anonymous texts from citizens to augment their anonymous tip hotlines. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Text a Tip Act of 

5 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. A PILOT PROGRAM FOR TEXTING CRIME TIPS. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General may make 

8 grants to State or local police departments to implement 

9 an anonymous tip program using cell phone text mes10 saging that comply with the requirements of this Act. 


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1 (b) USE OF FUNDS.—A State or local police depart2 ment that receives a grant under this Act shall use 

3 amounts provided under the grant to develop, implement, 

4 or expand the anonymous tip system using cell phone text 

5 messaging which may include payment of the following ex6 penses: 

7 (1) Salaries, personnel, training, technology, 

8 and other costs directly related to the operation of 

9 the program, including reward money. 

10 (2) Promotion of the program including public 

11 service announcements, printed advertisements, and 

12 other forms of marketing. 

13 (c) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of a grant 

14 under this Act shall not exceed 75 percent of the cost of 

15 the program. 

16 (d) SUPPLEMENT AND NOT SUPPLANT.—Grant 

17 amounts received under this Act shall be used to supple18 ment, and not supplant, non-Federal funds that would 

19 otherwise be available for activities funded under this Act. 

20 SEC. 3. PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS. 

21 A texting tip program eligible for a grant under this 

22 Act shall comply with the following requirements: 

23 (1) A State or local police department shall ad24 minister the program. 


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1 (2) The incoming text messages shall be 

2 stripped of any identifying information before it is 

3 transmitted to the police through a verifiable tech4 nology or third party. 

5 (3) The text tip shall not be traceable by any 

6 means. 

7 (4) The texting program shall not replace any 

8 existing 1–800 tip hotlines. 

9 (5) The police department shall train sufficient 

10 personnel to intercept and respond to the text tips. 

11 (6) The police department shall, to the extent 

12 possible, make this program compatible with most 

13 mobile phone providers. 

14 (7) The texting program should include an un15 identifiable code that can be given to the tipster if 

16 they want to send follow up information to the po17 lice, allowing for increased continuity and more ac18 curate information. 

19 (8) The texting program shall include a feature 

20 to abort a tip while it is in the process of being 

21 given. 

22 (9) The grantee shall not impose any additional 

23 fees on the tipster’s mobile phone. Only standard 

24 messaging rates from the tipster’s mobile phone pro25 vider shall apply. 


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1 (10) The police shall, to the extent possible, 

2 promote the texting program to encourage citizens, 

3 especially youth, to participate in the program. 

4 SEC. 4. APPLICATIONS. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—To request a grant under this 

6 Act, a State or local police department shall submit an 

7 application to the Department of Justice in such form and 

8 containing such information as the department may rea9 sonably require. 

10 (b) CERTIFICATIONS.—Each application for a grant 

11 under this Act shall contain the certification of the State 

12 or local police department that the program for which the 

13 grant is requested meets each of the requirements of this 

14 Act. 

15 SEC. 5. REPORTS AND EVALUATIONS. 

16 (a) RECIPIENTS.—For each fiscal year, each recipient 

17 of a grant under this Act during that fiscal year shall sub18 mit to the Attorney General a report on a date specified 

19 by the Attorney General— 

20 (1) regarding the effectiveness of activities car21 ried out using that grant; and 

22 (2) including an evaluation in such form and 

23 containing such information as the Attorney General 

24 may reasonably require. 


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1 (b) ATTORNEY GENERAL.—The Attorney General 

2 shall submit a yearly report on the effectiveness on the 

3 activities carried out under this Act to the Committees on 

4 the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representa5 tives. 

6 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 

8 (1) The term ‘‘texting tip program’’ means a 

9 program that— 

10 (A) allows citizens to text tips anony11 mously to the police to aid in criminal justice; 

12 (B) strips texts of identifying information; 

13 and 

14 (C) is used by the police to prevent and 

15 solve crimes. 

16 (2) The term ‘‘texting’’ means sending written 

17 messages from a mobile phone. Texts is the plural 

18 form of text messages. 

19 SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

20 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Attor21 ney General to carry out this Act $5,000,000 for each of 

22 fiscal years 2012 through 2017. 

Æ 


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