State lawmaker to front bill in House Committee hearing after failed 988 crisis hotline test

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

State Rep. Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville) will be fronting HB 1148, which addresses the 988 crisis hotline in the House Committee on Children and Families on Tuesday.

Representative Byrnes will be urging swift action on her bill, citing critical failures she discovered in a "firsthand test" of the 988 mental health crisis hotline.

The test, though, also has the attention of law enforcement in Jefferson City, with some dispatchers informing Byrnes of how much her "test" had tied up law enforcement resources.

Records obtained by ABC 17 News through a request detail a log from Jefferson City dispatchers trying to track down the origin of a 988 call on Thursday, Feb. 20.

The tip, the log said, came from someone who said "they had a gun to their head." It eventually led them to state Rep. Tricia Byrnes (R-Wentzville), who told them "she was proving how ineffective the 988 system is."

HB 1148 is set for a hearing at 8 a.m. Tuesday in the Children and Families Committee.