A Democratic state lawmaker from Juneau has proposed a ban on face masks and disguises for on-duty police officers, who could be charged with a misdemeanor for each violation.
House Bill 250, from Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, was one of 26 bills published Friday by the Alaska Legislature during the Legislature’s informal preseason.
Among the other proposals: mandating that homeschool programs increase the number of students taking standardized tests, eliminating the state’s Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, banning the sale of over-the-counter weight-loss products to children and requiring school districts to come up with a policy that states what they do if someone uses AI to impersonate a district official.
Lawmakers will convene Jan. 20 for their 2026 regular session, and they can introduce pieces of legislation in advance, effectively allowing the public a sneak peek before they are formally introduced on the first day of the session.
A second round of bills will be published next Friday, Jan. 16.
The odds of any particular bill becoming law are long.
In the 33rd Alaska Legislature, which covered 2023-2024, legislators and the governor introduced 665 bills, prefiled and not. Only 89 became law, a conversion rate of just over 13%.
While they might not immediately become law, prefiled bills can raise ideas that become law in subsequent years. In 2022, for example, legislators updated the state’s alcohol laws after almost 10 years of prior attempts, including some that were prefiled.
When it comes to the mask ban, Hannan’s bill arrives just days after a masked federal officer shot and killed a Minnesota woman on camera, sparking national outrage.
Hannan said her bill isn’t a direct response to that. She has been hearing about the issue from constituents “for going on a year,” she said.
“Many of our law enforcement encounters with people, is an attempt to de-escalate and understand a situation, and so much of communication is nonverbal,” she said. “It’s body language, it’s facial visualizations, and I think it’s a huge disservice for it to become standard practice in standard enforcement activities to be masking faces of law enforcement officers.”
The mask ban would not apply to medical masks, transparent face shields or for undercover officers.
Violating the ban would be a Class B misdemeanor.
HB 250 and the rest of the prefiled bills will formally be referred to committees for discussion once the Legislature convenes.