Except as provided in §§ 22-11-4 and 22-11-5, any person who, by using or threatening to use violence, force, or physical interference or obstacle, intentionally obstructs, impairs, or hinders the enforcement of the criminal laws or the preservation of the peace by a law enforcement officer or jailer acting under color of authority, or intentionally obstructs, impairs, or hinders the prevention, control, or abatement of fire by a firefighter acting under color of authority, or intentionally obstructs emergency management personnel acting under color of authority, is guilty of obstructing a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency medical technician. Obstructing a law enforcement officer, jailer, firefighter, or emergency medical technician is a Class 1 misdemeanor.
S.D. Codified Laws § 22-11-6
Obstructing law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency management personnel--Misdemeanor
Applied in 15 court decisions — leading case State v. Hodges (2001)
Most recently applied in State v. Hahn (June 2024)
Source: SL 1976, ch 158, § 11-3; SL 2005, ch 120, § 196.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.