By Journalist Olivia Kopang (OSU)
On Friday morning the Senate passed a bill titled “State Security Enhancement” (SE-006) with a final count of 8 in the affirmative and 7 in the negative. For the author, Representative Brady Robison (SE), it was closer than he would have liked. The bill relates to state security and as Robison puts it “to implement safeguards to protect the state against all foreign and domestic threats ranging from espionage to terrorism.”
Some of the main points of this bill highlight areas in Oklahoma’s state security that Ribison believes are lacking. These include maintaining a nationally accredited scientific laboratory to assist law enforcement agencies in the detection of criminal activity, maintain fingerprint and other identification files including criminal history records, and to maintain the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS).
Ribison drew his inspiration for the bill when he listened to Senator James Lankford talk about his mission to safeguard the state of Oklahoma against foreign enemies. His intent behind the bill was to be less reactive and more preemptive in securing Oklahomans’ safety through a thorough security mission.
While writing his bill, Ribison described the feedback he received from his professor. “He helped add language and substance to areas of my bill that establishes field offices for the state of Oklahoma. It was a bit too broad and vague mostly because I wasn’t sure what specifics to provide.” In order to combat the generalized sections of the bill, he went into more specific detail regarding OSBI leadership.
There haven’t been many bills like this one presented to the body during this session. It certainly gave senators something to think about when the bill went through an extensive line of questioning. After an impassioned body exhausted all of their questions they were ready to vote and although it was a very close call, it was a win for Robinson.