HBA-DMD H.B. 1255 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1255
By: Allen
Public Safety
3/10/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Although the Department of Public Safety (department) currently maintains
records on convictions and deferred adjudications, these records are not
available through the department due to an outdated and cumbersome
record-keeping process. Since these records are not available through the
department citizens may believe that these records are closed to the
public, when in fact they are a matter of public record in the counties and
are available for public use.   

H.B. 1255 entitles a person to obtain from the department any information
that is public information including criminal history information relating
to deferred adjudication or conviction. The bill also requires the
department to create a system in order to respond to electronic inquiries
and other inquiries for information.  

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Section 411.135(a), Government Code, as added by Chapter
747, Acts of the 75th Legislature, Regular Session, 1997, to entitle any
person to obtain from the Department of Public Safety (department) any
information that is described as public information under Article 62.08
(Central Database; Public Information), Code of Criminal Procedure, rather
than Section 5, Article 6252.13c.1, Revised Statutes.  Entitles any person
to criminal history record information that is maintained by the department
relating to the conviction of or a grant of deferred adjudication to a
person for any criminal offense which includes arrest information relating
to the conviction or grant of deferred adjudication.  Deletes criminal
history record information that is a court record of a public judicial
proceeding as information that any person is entitled to obtain from the
department. 

SECTION 2.  Requires the department to implement the system described by
Section 411.135 (Access to Certain Information by Public), Government Code,
as amended by this Act, no later than January 1, 2000. 

SECTION 3.Effective date: September 1, 1999.

SECTION 4.Emergency clause.