HB 25-1028

HB 25-1028, which has been signed into law, updates Colorado's address confidentiality program to better protect people who are victims of domestic violence or other serious crimes. The bill expands the use of substitute addresses to private entities and clarifies that work and school locations aren't part of a participant’s confidential residential address. It also allows participants to apply using just an email address instead of a phone number, helps shield their property records from public view, and increases fines for certain offenses to fund the program. This law will help keep more victims safer by making it harder for abusers or perpetrators to find them.

Official Summary

The bill modifies the address confidentiality program (program), which is intended to protect the confidentiality of the actual address of a relocated protected health-care worker or a relocated victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, human trafficking, or stalking. The modifications to the program are: Expanding the requirement to use a substitute address for a program participant from applying only to government agencies to applying to private entities, upon request of the program participant; Removing work and school addresses from the definition of actual address, such that an actual address only covers a residential address; Allowing a program participant to apply with their actual address and either a telephone number or an email address, rather than requiring a telephone number; Clarifying that entities and agencies must use a substitute address in the place of the name of a school or employer or for a program participant's home-based business, if requested; Increasing the court fine applied to convictions for certain offenses, which is used to fund the program, from $28 to $33 and expanding this fine by applying it to convictions for sexual assault and municipal offenses for domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, and human trafficking; Creating a process to allow program participants to shield real property records from public inspection; and Allowing a criminal justice official or government agency that has requested and been approved for expedited disclosure of a program participant's actual address to share the actual address with a law enforcement agency for the purpose of conducting a welfare check. The bill also makes technical and conforming amendments. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)