Iowa Senate is fighting violence

Your editorial on July 21 ('Clarify Iowa's domestic violence law”) did a great job of bringing Iowa's domestic violence laws into the spotlight. It is an important issue that must be addressed, so I thank you for calling attention to it.

However, you fell short on one key point.

The Gazette editorial called on lawmakers to 'clarify that dating is always an intimate relationship, and that violence is never acceptable.” Directing this request to all lawmakers is far too broad and does not identify the problem.

It is absolutely true that this clarification needs to be made, but you fail to point out in your editorial that the Iowa Senate is already fighting hard to address this problem. The only thing standing in our way is the Iowa House. Last session, several major pieces of domestic violence legislation passed the Iowa Senate with unanimous bipartisan support. These bills were blocked repeatedly by the Iowa House, most notably by the House Judiciary Chair Chip Baltimore (R - Boone) and House Speaker Kraig Paulsen (R - Hiawatha).

So, what were these pieces of legislation, and how would they have improved the safety of Iowans?

Senate File 300, passed the Senate 50-0, included dating violence in the definition of criminal domestic abuse, meaning that perpetrators of dating violence would be subject to enhanced penalties and batterer's education. Senate President Pam Jochum (D-Dubuque) sponsored this legislation to help victims of violent dating relationships, which account for more than 51 percent of the domestic abuse incidents in Iowa. These Iowans have the least amount of protection from their abusers. (Domestic abuse in married couples accounts for 28.6 percent of the reported incidents.) Abusers shouldn't receive lighter penalties for the same crime just because they aren't married or living together.

For the past 20 years, Iowa has averaged one domestic violence murder per month. Nearly all of these domestic violence victims were stalked before they were killed. The Senate passed two bills to provide stronger protection for victims of stalking.

Senate file 395, which passed the Senate 46-0, would crack down on stalking by expanding the definition of 'stalking” to include the use of surveillance technology and would modify the law such that a victim of stalking can report being stalked if they feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated or threatened by another person, as opposed to previous law which required that a victim fear for their life or physical injury. This bill was originally sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Senator Steve Sodders (D-Marshalltown).

Senate File 416, which passed the senate 49-0, would criminalize the placement of a GPS device on a person or an object without authorization and without a valid purpose in order to track the movements of that person. This bill was originally sponsored by Senator Liz Mathis (D-Robins).

I was honored to floor manage these bills in the Iowa Senate and see my Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle support the measures to improve the lives of victims of violence. Please don't characterize the entire Iowa Legislature as being stagnant on this issue when meaningful legislation is being blocked by a few House Republicans. Your readers deserve to know who they should thank for taking action and who they should contact to ensure the bills don't get shoved in a drawer for another year.

' Janet Petersen (D-Des Moines) serves the 18th District of the Iowa Senate. Comments: janet.petersen@legis.iowa.gov