I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5913 

To establish a pilot program for law enforcement agencies to use anonymous 

texts from citizens to augment their anonymous tip hotlines. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 28, 2010 

Mr. PAULSEN (for himself and Mr. LANGEVIN) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To establish a pilot program for law enforcement agencies 

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 2010’’. 

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 law enforcement agencies to imple9 ment an anonymous tip program using cell phone text 

10 messaging that comply with the requirements of this Act. 


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1 (b) USE OF FUNDS.—A State or local law enforce2 ment agency that receives a grant under this Act shall 

3 use amounts provided under the grant to develop, imple4 ment, or expand the anonymous tip system using cell 

5 phone text messaging which may include payment of the 

6 following expenses: 

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 of a State or local law enforce22 ment agency eligible for a grant under this Act shall com23 ply with the following requirements: 

24 (1) The State or local law enforcement agency 

25 shall administer 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 law enforcement agency through 

4 a verifiable technology 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 law enforcement agency shall train suf10 ficient personnel to intercept and respond to the text 

11 tips. 

12 (6) The law enforcement agency shall, to the 

13 extent possible, make this program compatible with 

14 most mobile phone providers. 

15 (7) The texting program should include a un16 identifiable code that can be given to the tipster if 

17 they want to send follow up information to the law 

18 enforcement agency, allowing for increased con19 tinuity and more accurate information. 

20 (8) The texting program shall include a feature 

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

22 given. 

23 (9) The law enforcement agency shall not im24 pose any additional fees on the tipster’s mobile 


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1 phone. Only standard messaging rates from the tip2 ster’s mobile phone provider shall apply. 

3 (10) The law enforcement agency shall, to the 

4 extent possible, promote the texting program to en5 courage citizens, especially youth, to participate in 

6 the program. 

7 SEC. 4. APPLICATIONS. 

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

9 Act, a State or local law enforcement agency shall submit 

10 an application to the Attorney General in such form and 

11 containing such information as the Attorney General may 

12 reasonably require. 

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

14 under this Act shall contain the certification of the State 

15 or local law enforcement agency that the program for 

16 which the grant is requested meets each of the require17 ments of this Act. 

18 SEC. 5. REPORTS AND EVALUATIONS. 

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

20 of a grant under this Act during that fiscal year shall sub21 mit to the Attorney General a report on a date specified 

22 by the Attorney General— 

23 (1) regarding the effectiveness of activities car24 ried out using that grant; and 


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1 (2) including an evaluation in such form and 

2 containing such information as the Attorney General 

3 may reasonably require. 

4 (b) ATTORNEY GENERAL.—The Attorney General 

5 shall submit a yearly report on the effectiveness on the 

6 activities carried out under this Act to the Committees on 

7 the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representa8 tives. 

9 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

10 In this Act: 

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

12 program that— 

13 (A) allows citizens to text tips anony14 mously to a law enforcement agency to aid in 

15 criminal justice; 

16 (B) strips texts of identifying information; 

17 and 

18 (C) is used by a law enforcement agency to 

19 prevent and solve crimes. 

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

21 messages from a mobile phone. Texts is the plural 

22 form of text messages. 


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1 SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

2 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Attor3 ney General to carry out this Act $5,000,000 for each of 

4 fiscal years 2011 through 2016. 

Æ 


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