Opinion ID: 1494306
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Legislative History of  123

Text: According to the 1986 Maryland Laws, chapter 721, the purpose of  123 is prohibiting a person from following another person in a certain manner or from engaging in certain other conduct under certain circumstances; defining a certain term; providing penalties for a violation of this Act; providing that this act does not apply to certain conduct; and generally relating to the crime of harassment. (Emphasis added). There is no documentation in the bill file regarding whether this statute was modeled after that of another state, even though, as we discuss infra, other states have used identical or similar language in fashioning their harassment statutes and in defining the term harass in their statutes. The only other insight provided is in the Summary of Committee Report on House Bill 381 (the bill from which the harassment statute came) prepared by the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. According to the Report, the proposed harassment statute will help law enforcement agencies in their attempts to defuse ongoing feuds and longstanding disputes between neighbors, former boyfriends and girlfriends, and adults which arise on a daily basis. The Baltimore Police Department testified that police departments' hands are virtually tied without this legislation. House Bill 381 would give law enforcement personnel the opportunity to avoid extreme situations which occur due to harassment and would allow the police to diffuse potentially harmful activity This bill also provides a vehicle for the relief of many victims of harassment who are without legal means to otherwise deal with the problem of harassment. Summary of Comm. Rep. on H.B. 381, at 1-2 (1986). Though this Report is helpful in elaborating on the purpose of the harassment statute, it does not mention whether the Maryland statute was modeled after the harassment statutes of other states.