Kevin Roberts: “I rise today to speak about an important piece of legislation I just filed, aptly named after the young Kansan whose…”

“I rise today to speak about an important piece of legislation I just filed, aptly named after the young Kansan whose life and bright future was cut short by a senseless act of violence and whose case now is the inspiration for why we desperately need to update the law. Almost 12 years ago, on June 2, 2017, 18-year-old Kelsey Smith was abducted in broad daylight from an Overland Park, KS, parking lot. Kelsey's abduction was captured on the store's closed-circuit security camera, which left little doubt about the emergency sense of the situation. This was an emergency. Here is the tragedy. Four days after Kelsey disappeared, authorities were able to locate her body after a wireless provider finally released the call information from her cell phone--4 critical days. Providing location information as fast as possible is absolutely critical to ensure that law enforcement officials can rescue victims in imminent danger of death or serious physical harm and hopefully prevent future fates similar to Kelsey's. This legislation is the culmination of years of work among legislators at both the Federal and State levels, including industry stakeholders, privacy advocates, and, most importantly, Kelsey's brave parents, who spearheaded this initiative and have advocated to create commonsense reforms that properly balance the needs of law enforcement with Fourth Amendment protections for all of our citizens.…”