HBA-SEB S.B. 8 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisS.B. 8 By: West, Royce Juvenile Justice and Family Issues 4/30/1999 Engrossed BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, Texas law allows a criminal justice agency to compile information for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting the criminal activities. The agency, however, is prohibited from sending this information to a statewide database. S.B. 8 requires the Texas Department of Public Safety to establish and maintain a statewide criminal information intelligence database. 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 Article 61.01, Code of Criminal Procedure, by amending Subdivision (1) and adding Subdivisions (7) and (8), to define "criminal street gang," "department," and "intelligence database." SECTION 2. Amends Article 61.02, Code of Criminal Procedure, as follows: Art. 61.02. New title: CRIMINAL INFORMATION INTELLIGENCE DATABASE. (a) Authorizes a criminal justice agency to compile criminal information into an intelligence database, rather than system, subject to Subsection (b) for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting criminal street gangs. (b) Authorizes a law enforcement agency to compile and maintain criminal information relating to a criminal street gang in a local or regional intelligence database only if the agency compiles and maintains the information in accordance with certain criminal intelligence operating policies and the submission criteria for gangs and gang members established by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for the National Crime Information Center Violent Gang and Terrorist Organizations File. SECTION 3. Amends Articles 61.03(c) and (d), Code of Criminal Procedure, to require a local law enforcement agency to send information relating to criminal street gangs to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Requires DPS to maintain information received from a local law enforcement agency in an intelligence database in accordance with certain criminal intelligence operating policies and the submission criteria for gangs and gang members established by the FBI. Deletes existing text prohibiting the agency from sending the information to a statewide database. Makes conforming changes. SECTION 4. Amends Article 61.04, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding Subsection (d), to authorize a governing body of a county or municipality served by a local law enforcement agency that collects criminal information to adopt a policy to notify the parent or guardian of a child about the agency's observations relating to the child's association with criminal street gangs. SECTION 5. Amends Chapter 61, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding Articles 61.07 and 61.08, as follows: Art. 61.07. RIGHT TO REQUEST REVIEW OF CRIMINAL INFORMATION. Requires the head of a law enforcement agency or a designee to review criminal information collected by the agency relating to a person or child in order to determine if reasonable suspicion exists to believe that the information is inaccurate. Requires the review on receipt of a written request of the person or parent or guardian of the child. Requires the agency to destroy all records containing the information and to notify the person who requested the review about the agency's determination and destruction of records in question if the agency head or designee determines that reasonable suspicion exists to believe that the information is inaccurate. Requires an agency to notify a person who requested a review of the agency's determination and the person's entitlement to seek judicial review if the agency head or designee determines that reasonable suspicion does not exist to believe that collected information is inaccurate. Art. 61.08. JUDICIAL REVIEW. Authorizes a person entitled to seek judicial review of a determination to file a petition for review in district court. Requires a district court, on a filing of a petition for review, to conduct an in camera review of the criminal information to determine if reasonable suspicion exists to believe that the information is inaccurate. Requires the court to order the law enforcement agency that collected the information to destroy all records containing the information if the court finds that reasonable suspicion exists to believe that the collected information is inaccurate. Authorizes a petitioner to appeal a final judgment of a district court conducting an in camera review. SECTION 6. Repealer: Article 61.06, Code of Criminal Procedure (Destruction of Records). SECTION 7. Requires any law enforcement agency, by January 1, 2000, that collected criminal information under Chapter 61, Code of Criminal Procedure, to review the information that was compiled or maintained on or before December 31, 1999, to determine if the agency compiled and is maintaining the information in accordance with certain criminal intelligence operating policies and the submission criteria for gangs and gang members established by the FBI for the National Crime Information Center Violent Gang and Terrorist Organizations File. Requires the agency, by January 1, 2000, to purge all records containing any criminal information kept in the agency's system that was not collected or is not being maintained in accordance with those standards. SECTION 8. Requires DPS to report to the legislature on the use and effectiveness of the intelligence maintained in the DPS database no later than December 1, 2000. SECTION 9.Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.