Tracker: State Legislation to Protect Public Officials
In recent years, public officials of all types have faced assaults, threats, and harassment. According to the most recent survey by Civic Pulse and Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University, 38% of local officials reported having been harassed within the past three months.
State legislatures have taken action to respond to these threats and protect public officials of all levels.
- At least 13 states had some type of explicit protections for public officials in their code prior to 2025.
- Since January 2025, 27 state legislatures have introduced bills that include urgently needed protections for public officials.
- Public Citizen and partner organizations have engaged with legislators around the country to help get bills across the finish line.
States that have passed new protections this year for public officials include:
Public Citizen recommends a comprehensive approach to protecting public officials:
- Statutes should cover public officials at both the state and local levels of government, as well as the federal judiciary – and should cover their staff and family members, also.
- Statutes should protect against all threats and harm related to the officials’ public duties.
- Statutes should allow public officials the option of protecting their home address and other personal information from disclosure. Consider including a process to remove threatened officials’ personal information from the open web.
- Statutes should protect against doxxing and swatting.
- State budgets should include adequate funding for security services. Public officials should be able to receive security services on an as-needed basis, in addition to the security already provided in most public buildings.
Our “Key Elements for Legislation to Protect Public Officials” legislative recommendations document can be a resource for legislators looking to take action on this pressing issue.
The table below illustrates where states have passed, or are in the process of debating legislation, to protect public officials, as well as states that already had protections in their code.
See an error or want more information about legislation to protect public officials? Please contact Liz Iacobucci (liacobucci@citizen.org)
Bills Passed 2025 – Present
| State | Bill | Description | Date Enacted |
|---|---|---|---|
| AL | SB 230 | Allows for using campaign funds on certain security expenses to protect candidates, elected officials, family members, and staff. | March 2026 |
| HI | SB 2567 and SB 2568 | Elevates the offense of harassment to a misdemeanor when committed against a public servant because of or during their performance of official duties and establishes a two-year pilot project to authorize public employers to petition for temporary restraining orders and injunctions against employment-related harassment of certain public employees. | June 2026 |
| IN | SB 140 | Expand scope of legal protections against distribution or personal identifying information, with specific penalty increases for intimidation if committed against a legislator. | March 2026 |
| MN | HF 4239 | Increases the amount of campaign funds a candidate can spend on personal security and classifies some residence street address information of candidates as non-public. | May 2026 |
| OK | HB 3678 | Makes knowingly publishing the personally identifiable information of these officials, when it leads to a reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury, a misdemeanor, with escalated penalties for repeat offenses and expansions of coverage for municipal and school board officials. | May 2026 |
| TN | HB 2045/SB 2320 | Authorizes a candidate or officeholder to expend campaign funds of not more than $12,000 per year for residential security. | May 2026 |
| VA | HB 835 | Restricts the publication of personal identifying information for public officials and allows for other methods of verification of residency requirements. | April 2026 |
Previously Existing Protections for Public Officials
| State | Bill | Description | Date Enacted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | HB 287 | Criminalizes doxxing against public officals in Alabama, including those who perform government functions like election work. It makes it a misdemeanor for those who reveal personal identifying information to harm or harass. This is followed by a Class C felony for future violations. | May 2023 |
| Arizona | SB 1061 | Addresses doxxing and allows public officials, including election workers, to have their personal information removed from the public record if they believe that their life or safety is in danger. | May 2023 |
| California | AB 2041 | Eliminates the restriction of using campaign funds for safety measures only upon law enforcement verification of threats. Now, funds are available to candidates, elected officers, and their staff in the event of a threat arising from their duties, activities, or status. Safety measures were expanded from home security systems to include assigning security details. Maximum funds for safety measures also doubled from $5,000 to $10,000. | September 2024 |
| Colorado | HB 1041 | Allows those considered at risk of threats, including Colorado code enforcement officers and other exempt parties, to request the removal of their personal information from publicly available internet records. | March 2022 |
| D.C. | § 22–851. | Creates penalties for threatening, harassing, or impeding a public official from doing their official duties. | April 2007 |
| Florida | H 103 | Allows judicial staff of cities and counties in Florida, including attorneys, to have their personal information exempted from public record requirements. This includes home addresses, telephone numbers, and sensitive information of family members. However, this exemption is lifted for attorneys who are to be candidates in an election for public office. | June 2024 |
| Hawaii | HB 1916 | Enables public officials, including election officers, to have personal information made unavailable for public discourse. This would remove personal data from public search domains upon a written request, while retaining access to public records. | July 2024 |
| Illinois | HB 5877 | Michael Lefkow and Donna Humphrey Judicial Privacy Improvement Act. It allows judges and judicial officers to make a written request to have their personal information—such as home addresses and phone numbers—removed from public records and restricted from being posted online by government agencies or private businesses. | July 2012 |
| Maryland | HB 636 | Redefines what personal information of public officials entails to include personal email addresses and phone numbers, bolsters the privacy officials, and requires that this information be restricted from public records. | April 2024 |
| New Mexico | SB 180 | Act that makes several changes to New Mexico's Election laws. This includes allowing public officials to designate their home address as confidential, exempting it from public records. | March 2023 |
Bills Introduced 2025 – Present
| State | Bill | Summary | Date Introduced |
|---|---|---|---|
| AL | HB 146 | Creating an exception to the Public Records Act for certain public employee personal information. | March 2025 |
| AL | HB106 | Crimes and offenses; to further provide for the crime of doxings; to further provide for penalties (for doxing of public servants). | March 2026 |
| AZ | HB 2630 | Election officers; privacy protections increase. | January 2026 |
| CA | AB 883 | Creates an expedited data-removal system to protect the safety of judges, elected officials, and their families. | February 2025 |
| CT | HB 5546 | Provide that payment for personal security services for a candidate and such candidate's family and campaign staff is a permissible expenditure of a committee. | March 2026 |
| CT | HB 5548 | Expands the list of people covered by the Freedom of Information Act’s (FOIA) limitation on public agencies disclosing home addresses by adding any public agency employee whose residence is not a condition of employment to the list. It also expands the scope of these address protections. | March 2026 |
| IA | HF 839 | Candidates and elected officials may request their home address be excluded from official publications. | March 2025 |
| IL | SB 3491 | Expand coverage of the Judicial Privacy Act to federal judicial officials and State judicial officials that includes judges and clerks of the State and federal judicial system. Amends "personal information" that may be protected to include financial, date of birth, race and ethnicity, and biometric information. | February 2025 |
| KS | HB 2460 | Authorizes members of the legislature to have identifying information restricted from public access on public websites that identify home addresses or home ownership. | January 2026 |
| MA | S 2918 | Enhancing safety and security for candidates and professionals. | January 2026 |
| MA | H 2060 | Assault and battery against healthcare personnel, school officials, and first responders. | February 2025 |
| MA | H 5059 | Relative to the public posting or displaying of the personal information of certain protected judicial officials and their family members | February 2026 |
| MA | S 516 | Declares harassment and intimidation of state and local election workers or their families a punishable crime. | February 2025 |
| ME | LD 695 | An Act to Improve the Safety of Those in Public Service. | February 2025 |
| MD | SB 632 | Certain protected individuals or the Office may request that governmental entities or persons not publish personal information of protected individual. | February 2026 |
| MD | SB 121 | Procedures for banning personal info of protected officials, as well as removal. | January 2026 |
| ME | LD 2121 | Convene a working group to study methods for enhancing the safety of judicial and elected officials. | January 2026 |
| MI | HB 4397 | Enhance personal information and physical safety protections for state level elected officials, their families, and household members. | April 2025 |
| MI | SB 82 | Enhance personal information and physical safety protections for judges, their families, and household members. | February 2025 |
| MN | HF 2127 | Judicial official real property records classified as private, and access limited to judicial official real property. | March 2025 |
| MN | HF 3363 | Enhances personal data (ex. addresses) for candidates and public officials within Minnesota's campaign finance framework. Allocates campaign funds for personal security. | February 2026 |
| MN | HF 3209 / SF 3372 | Increase penalty for reporting fictitious emergency resulting in response to the home of certain officials. | April 2025 |
| MN | SF 3710 | Classifying certain street addresses on specified documents as private data; prohibiting the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board from posting private data on its website; providing for the use of noncampaign disbursements for security-related expenses; modifying campaign finance laws related to security-related expenses. | February 2026 |
| MS | HB 704 | Establishes the Mississippi Doxxing Prevention Act; create to prevent release of personal information with intent to harass, with specific coverage for public officials. | January 2026 |
| NC | H 95 | The act of threatening an elected official has an increased punishment - increases the class of felony. | February 2025 |
| NJ | S 2972 | Enhances penalties for threats against certain public servants, establishes crime of doxxing, and enhances penalties for improper use of personal identifying information. | January 2026 |
| NJ | A 3574 / S 562 | Redacts personal identifying information and home address nondisclosure of elected officials and candidates. | January 2026 |
| NJ | S 2821 / A 4343 | Establishes crimes against elected public officials and immediate families; provides police protection in instances of crime against elected public official and immediate family. | January 2026 |
| NJ | S 2011 | Establishes four disorderly persons offenses concerning offenses against election officials. | January 2026 |
| NY | S 8646 | Prohibits the intimidation, obstruction, or the unlawful dissemination of personal information of election officers; makes election officers eligible for the address confidentiality program. | January 2026 |
| NY | A 513 / S112 | Establishes the crime of doxing a police officer, peace officer, or state officer. | January 2025 |
| NY | S 5696 / A 4928 | Includes within the class D felony of assault in the second degree, the intentional causing of physical injury to an election officer while such person is performing their assigned duties; amends aggravated harassment and obstruction of governmental administration to include election officers. | February 2025 |
| OH | SB 225 | To expand the Address Confidentiality Program, to exempt judges' and prosecutors' addresses from disclosure, and to make related changes to the Election Law. | June 2025 |
| OH | SB 327 | Aims to enhance the privacy protections for elected officials in Ohio. | November 2025 |
| OH | SB 82 | Specify election official status for public records law purposes to restrict publication of personal identifying information. | February 2025 |
| PA | HB 1822 | Providing for protection of personal data; imposing duties on data brokers regarding personal data. | August 2025 |
| RI | HB 7495 / SB 2334 | Authorizes the use of campaign funds for security related expenses, including home and office security systems and ongoing monitoring, in response to threats arising from their public service or candidacy. | January 2026 |
| SC | H 3518 | Establish offenses for certain acts or conduct against an election official, to provide certain protections for the personal information of election officials from public dissemination. | January 2025 |
| SC | H 4779 | Create doxing as a criminal offense and to provide penalties, including increased penalties for doxing of public servants. | January 2026 |
| SD | HB 1083 | Establish the crime of felony stalking of a public official, and provide a penalty therefor. | January 2026 |
| TN | SB 1932 | Requires that certain personally identifying information of elected state and local public officials be maintained confidentially with limited exceptions. | January 2026 |
| TN | SB 1932 | Requires that certain personally identifying information of elected state and local public officials be maintained confidentially with limited exceptions. | January 2026 |
| VA | HB 212 | Intimidation and threats toward election officials; penalty. | January 2026 |
| VT | H 342 | An act relating to protecting the personal information of certain public servants. | February 2025 |
| WA | SB 5853 | Creating the statewide emergency public official notification system to alert all public officials when any enrolled public official contacts a 911 emergency communications system and upon confirmation of a targeted threat to any public official. | January 2026 |
| WA | HB 2333 | Protecting elected officials and candidates, executive state officers, election officials, and criminal justice participants against threats and incidents of political violence. | January 2026 |
| WA | SB 6095 | Protecting elected officials from political violence by creating the statewide emergency public official notification system. | January 2026 |
| WV | HB 54 | Creates the "Anti-Doxing and Privacy Protection Act,"; has specific increased penalties when such acts are made against a public official. | February 2026 |