FRANKFORT, Ky. — Chairman Whitney Westerfield, a Republican, joined two Democrats in voting against a sweeping crime bill Thursday as the Senate Judiciary Committee approved its version of the controversial measure.
Westerfield, who had proposed a rewrite of House Bill 5, said he preferred his version but “I don’t have the votes.”
Instead the committee approved a substitute that takes language from drafts by both Westerfield and Sen. John Schickel.
Westerfield’s draft moderated some of the penalties of the original bill while Schickel focused on preserving the sections that backed law enforcement and maintaining a three strikes rule for violent felony offenders.
The committee forwarded the bill to the full Senate with seven Republican senators voting in favor. Louisville Democrats Sens. Gerald Neal and Karen Berg voted against it, and Westerfield joined them.
Along with primary sponsor Rep. Jared Bauman, House Bill 5 is backed by several Jefferson County House Republicans. Bauman told the committee Thursday that he appreciated Westerfield “engaging with us in a constructive way so we could help sharpen this bill and make a couple of small changes to improve it.”
The committee heard testimony opposing the bill from across the political spectrum during a Tuesday meeting when he bill was up for discussion only and a vote was not taken. On Thursday, the Kentucky Commonwealth Attorneys Association and Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police expressed support for the bill.
Ryan Straw, vice president and governmental affairs chair of the police union told the committee that the bill can help with recruitment and retention of police officers across the state, making Kentucky “a destination for law enforcement.” He said “improving the laws” on the books could encourage more officers to stay in law enforcement.
“I know everyone wants to have their law enforcement feel supported and want to feel part of the community,” Straw said.
On the other hand, committee members continued to hear opposition, including to the bill’s criminalization of “street camping.”
Several speakers from the Coalition for the Homeless appeared before the committee. An eighth-grader from Saint Francis of Assisi in Louisville, Elli Keeley-Fine, urged lawmakers to reconsider the bill and recounted the experiences her and her classmates have had helping unhoused people.
The latest version of the bill says that people are guilty of illegal street camping if they remain in a public or private area used by pedestrians or vehicles when “the area has not been designated for the purpose of sleeping or camping or the individual lacks authorization to sleep or camp in the area.” Language that permits sleeping in a legally parked vehicle for less than 12 hours is still in the bill.
“We want our state to be known as a place which truly understands that we are called to hold tightly to one another’s lives as we welcome the stranger and provide refuge for those seeking shelter from life’s traumas and storms,’ Keeley-Fine said. “We hope it will be clear that we are our brother’s keeper. Let the compassion, kindness and inclusivity that have always allowed Kentuckians to unite against life’s hardest challenges be woven into the fabric of House Bill 5.”
Opponents have pointed to the costs of imprisoning even more people in a state that already has one of the highest incarceration rates. The progressive Kentucky Center for Economic Policy found in an analysis that the legislation would cost more than $1 billion over the next decade because of an increase in incarceration expenses.
A representative from center-right group KY FREE said on Tuesday that the Legislative Research Commission should conduct an in-depth fiscal analysis of the bill before the General Assembly passes it.
The adopted committee substitute was the fourth version the Senate Judiciary Committee considered. Westerfield publicly shared the document on X, formerly Twitter, after omissions were inadvertently left in the third committee substitute.
“I’ll explain my vote when the bill hits the floor,” Westerfield said at the end of the meeting.
As of Thursday morning, the bill had received one reading in the Senate. Upon a third reading, it can get a floor vote. The House previously approved the bill in a vote of 74-22.
