An Act to protect residents and law enforcement officers in the Commonwealth

This bill classifies arrest warrants in Massachusetts as either discretionary or non-discretionary based on the risk they pose to individuals or the public. Under the new rules, law enforcement officers must arrest anyone subject to a non-discretionary warrant but may choose not to arrest those with a discretionary warrant if they provide written notice of the court appearance, document the decision in an incident report, and share that report with the relevant court. The legislation directly affects police officers and the residents subject to outstanding warrants by standardizing how different types of warrants are handled during enforcement.