Overland Park residents could face a misdemeanor charge for remaining within 25 feet of a first responder after being warned away, now that the City Council has voted to add the state's Halo Act to the city's municipal code.

The council approved the ordinance Aug. 18. Under the law, a first responder must first issue a verbal warning and have a "reasonable belief" that a person's presence poses a safety risk before a violation can be charged. Penalties include up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, according to ABC News.

Mayor Curt Skoog made clear the council wasn't enthusiastic.

"This is not an ordinance that we would pass of our own volition," Skoog said.

Why the city adopted a law it didn't want

The Kansas Halo Act (HB 2372) took effect July 1 after the Republican-led Legislature overrode Gov. Laura Kelly's veto along party lines. Kelly cited "a myriad of legal concerns" in her April veto statement, including tension between law enforcement duties and First Amendment rights to observe and record officers.

The law applies to local police, federal agents including ICE officers, emergency medical providers and firefighters.

Senior assistant city attorney Eric Blevins told the council that Overland Park police must enforce the state law regardless of whether the city codified it locally. The difference: putting it in city code routes cases to Overland Park Municipal Court, where a violation would be handled as a citation-and-release, according to the Johnson County Post. Without local codification, cases would go to Johnson County District Court, potentially resulting in a warrant, arrest and jail detention before arraignment.

Blevins said incorporating the law into the city's public offense code gives Overland Park "greater local oversight and control over the specific circumstances in which it's charged."

First Amendment concerns

Councilmember Amy Scrivner called the situation a political hot potato and said the city had been forced into it. City attorney Michael Koss acknowledged the risk of a First Amendment lawsuit but said any legal challenge would likely target the state law for statewide impact rather than single out Overland Park's ordinance.

Similar 25-foot buffer laws have been struck down elsewhere. The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Indiana's nearly identical law, with Judge Doris Pryor finding it too vague and susceptible to "arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement," according to Verite News. A Louisiana version was blocked by a federal district court in January 2025, with a Fifth Circuit appeal still pending.

Kansas Press Association executive director Emily Bradbury argued during the legislative session that the law is unconstitutional and warned it will result in costly litigation paid by Kansas taxpayers.

Already invoked in Johnson County

Since July 1, ICE agents have invoked the 25-foot rule multiple times in Olathe while bystanders filmed immigration enforcement. On July 11, Alan Marquez, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen, and his cousin were detained for hours at the New Century Adult Detention Center after an interaction with ICE agents at an Olathe apartment complex. A witness filming from her car was told "25 feet" by an agent.

Olathe's City Council adopted the same ordinance one day later, on Aug. 19. Skoog urged residents to remember that "elections have impacts," referring to the state Legislature that passed the law over the governor's veto.