Police officers, judges, and certain correctional workers may soon be able to have their names removed from state public records as a way of protecting themselves and their families.

Rep. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, the House sponsor of the legislation, told lawmakers on the House floor Monday that the legislation is incredibly important for protecting those who the state asks to take potentially dangerous jobs.  The legislation would not automatically remove all personal information, such as home addresses and phone numbers, of police officers and others, but would rather allow them to apply to have their information removed.

Hagedorn said officers who testified in a court cases are required to list their home addresses on court documents, which would change under Hagedorn's plan.  If the bill is signed by the governor and enacted into law, officers would be able to list the address for their department headquarters as their personal address on court records.

In a previous hearing on the legislation, Boise City Police Department Officer Joel Teuber said that "it's easy" for families of those in prison to find the names and addresses of officers, which has led to harassment and intimidation for officers and their families.

"They’ve had several incidents where inmates’ family members have gotten a hold of a correction officers’ home phone numbers and addresses and used that to harass, threaten, and intimidate staff members and their family, sometimes to the point of using it to coerce the staff members to do favors for the inmates," said Teuber.

The legislation, which has already been given the green light by the Senate, now heads to the Gov. Butch Otter for his signature.  The bill has approval from the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police.