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An Act To Prevent Offensive Touching of a Person Seeking Access to Public Facilities
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  17-A MRSA §214  is enacted to read:
§ 214. Unlawful contact during a security screening
 
1.       A person is guilty of unlawful contact during a security screening if:
 
A.  As part of a security screening performed by the person to detect and intercept weapons and other prohibited items that an individual may attempt to bring into a public building, the person knowingly or recklessly subjects the individual being screened to unlawful contact; and
 
B.  The person is employed or under contract for services by the State.
 
A violation of this subsection is a Class D crime.
 
2.       For purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.
 
A.  "Public building" means a building owned or leased by the State to which the public has access, except "public building" does not include a correctional facility as defined in Title 34-A, section 1001, subsection 6; a county or municipal detention facility as described in Title 34-A, section 1208; or a facility used to house county prisoners, including, but not limited to, a secure detention facility as defined in Title 15, section 3003, subsection 24-A and a temporary holding resource as defined in Title 15, section 3003, subsection 26.
 
B.  "Unlawful contact during a security screening" or "unlawful contact" means touching of the anus, genitals, breasts, buttocks or inner thigh directly or through clothing or touching in a manner that would be offensive to a reasonable person.
 
3.       This section does not apply to a person performing a security screening who has a reasonable articulable suspicion that the individual being screened has a prohibited item that may not be detected or intercepted without making contact that is otherwise prohibited under subsection 1.
 
SUMMARY
This bill creates the new Class D crime of unlawful contact during a security screening, which prohibits a person conducting a security screening of an individual seeking access to certain public buildings from touching certain areas of that individual without a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the individual possesses a prohibited item that may not be detectable without touching those areas. This prohibition does not apply to security screenings at correctional facilities.