Bill adds boat docks to trespassing law

For Lake of the Ozarks property owners and law officers, it's a growing problem - people getting on boat docks that aren't theirs.

So Missouri lawmakers are being asked to fix it, by making it clear that's trespassing under Missouri law.

"Under current law, a person commits a Class B misdemeanor of first-degree trespass by "knowingly and unlawfully entering or remaining' in another person's building or on another person's real property," state Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla, told the Senate's Judiciary committee last week.

His bill would add a "temporary or permanent privately owned structure attached to another person's building or property" to the list of first-degree trespassing actions.

Right now, Ian Dunlap told the committee, it's hard for law officers or prosecutors to enforce trespassing complaints on boat docks because "there's a question about what's considered "real property' versus "personal property,' and the boat docks that are out on a public waterway."

For example, under current law, a building is "real property," but a vehicle is "personal property."

Dunlap is the state Public Safety department's legislative liaison.

He told the committee Brown's proposed law would allow officers to enforce trespassing complaints on docks regardless of what kind of property they're considered to be.

Right now, Dunlap said, "The owner of that dock goes out and says, "Can you please leave?' and, really, there's no (legal) ground for those people to leave.

"So we're trying to make it where those folks who own that dock can ask those folks to leave - and there's some punishment behind it."

Conviction of a Class B misdemeanor charge could result in a sentence of up to six months in jail.

The potential trespasser would have to have "notice" that he shouldn't be on the dock - either by fencing it or posting a sign.

"That way, the prosecutor (and) our personnel on the Lake will have something they can show, "This is what it is. You cannot be here. It is posted,'" Dunlap said. "We feel we've come up with a solution here, and we feel this will help law enforcement and prosecutors in general."

No one testified against the bill.

It has not been scheduled, yet, for full Senate debate.