An Act To Prevent Offensive Touching of a Person Seeking Access to Public Facilities
Maine Legislature, Session 126, LD 0841
Committee: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Sponsors: LIBBY, CHIPMAN, DUNPHY, HARLOW, HARVELL, RUSSELL, SANDERSON, SIROCKI, COLLINS
Amends: 17-A MRSA §214

Legislative Document 
No. 841 
H.P. 592 
House of Representatives, March 5, 2013 
An Act To Prevent Offensive Touching of a Person Seeking Access 
to Public Facilities 
Reference to the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety suggested and ordered 
printed. 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative LIBBY of Waterboro. 
Cosponsored by Representatives: CHIPMAN of Portland, DUNPHY of Embden, HARLOW of 
Portland, HARVELL of Farmington, RUSSELL of Portland, SANDERSON of Chelsea, 
SIROCKI of Scarborough, Senator: COLLINS of York. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  17-A MRSA §214 is enacted to read: 
§214.  Unlawful contact during a security screening 
1.   A person is guilty of unlawful contact during a security screening if: 
A.  As part of a security screening performed by the person to detect and intercept 
weapons and other prohibited items that an individual may attempt to bring into a 
public building, the person knowingly or recklessly subjects the individual being 
screened to unlawful contact; and 
B.  The person is employed or under contract for services by the State. 
A violation of this subsection is a Class D crime. 
2.   For purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following 
terms have the following meanings. 
A.  "Public building" means a building owned or leased by the State to which the 
public has access, except "public building" does not include a correctional facility as 
defined in Title 34-A, section 1001, subsection 6; a county or municipal detention 
facility as described in Title 34-A, section 1208; or a facility used to house county 
prisoners, including, but not limited to, a secure detention facility as defined in Title 
15, section 3003, subsection 24-A and a temporary holding resource as defined in 
Title 15, section 3003, subsection 26. 
B.  "Unlawful contact during a security screening" or "unlawful contact" means 
touching of the anus, genitals, breasts, buttocks or inner thigh directly or through 
clothing or touching in a manner that would be offensive to a reasonable person. 
3.   This section does not apply to a person performing a security screening who has a 
reasonable articulable suspicion that the individual being screened has a prohibited item 
that may not be detected or intercepted without making contact that is otherwise 
prohibited under subsection 1. 
SUMMARY 
This bill creates the new Class D crime of unlawful contact during a security 
screening, which prohibits a person conducting a security screening of an individual 
seeking access to certain public buildings from touching certain areas of that individual 
without a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the individual possesses a prohibited 
item that may not be detectable without touching those areas.  This prohibition does not 
apply to security screenings at correctional facilities.