To repeal section 190.308, RSMo Supp. 1996, relating to emergency telephone service, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject, with penalty provisions.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, AS FOLLOWS:

     Section A. Section 190.308, RSMo Supp. 1996, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 190.308, to read as follows:

     190.308. 1. In any county that has established an emergency telephone service pursuant to sections 190.300 to 190.320, it shall be unlawful for any person to misuse the emergency telephone service. For the purposes of this section, "emergency" means any incident involving danger to life or property that calls for an emergency response dispatch of police, fire, EMS or other public safety organization, "misuse the emergency telephone service", includes, but is not limited to, repeatedly calling the "911" for nonemergency situations causing operators or equipment to be in use when emergency situations may need such operators or equipment and "repeatedly" means three or more times within a one-month period.

     2. [The provisions of this section shall apply only to counties of the first classification without a charter form of government which has a population of at least two hundred thousand inhabitants.

     3.] Any violation of this section is a class B misdemeanor.