By:  Moncrief                                          S.B. No. 840
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the compilation and use by law enforcement agencies of
    1-2  gang information systems.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Title 1, Code of Criminal Procedure, is amended
    1-5  by adding Chapter 61 to read as follows:
    1-6                 CHAPTER 61.  GANG INFORMATION SYSTEMS
    1-7        Art. 61.01.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:
    1-8              (1)  "Gang" means a criminal street gang, as defined by
    1-9  Section 71.01(d), Penal Code, or a combination, as defined by
   1-10  Section 71.01(a), Penal Code.
   1-11              (2)  "Information" means criminal intelligence
   1-12  information including identifying information of any kind, habits,
   1-13  and intelligence reasonably related to the investigation and
   1-14  prosecution of actual or likely criminal activity.  The information
   1-15  shall not be considered an official criminal history compilation
   1-16  but is to be used as investigative intelligence within and between
   1-17  law enforcement agencies.
   1-18              (3)  "Criminal activity" means any act that could be
   1-19  criminally prosecuted were it performed by an adult.  Information
   1-20  may be compiled and shared under this chapter without regard to the
   1-21  ages of the persons involved in the act.
   1-22              (4)  "Law enforcement agency" means any local, state,
   1-23  or federal governmental unit or agency that employs peace officers
    2-1  or adult or juvenile probation officers and also includes a
    2-2  district attorney, criminal district attorney, county attorney,
    2-3  other prosecuting attorney, or court.
    2-4        Art. 61.02.  GANG INFORMATION SYSTEMS.  (a)  One or more law
    2-5  enforcement agencies may create a compilation of information which
    2-6  may be useful in the investigation and prosecution of the
    2-7  activities of gangs.  The information may concern members and
    2-8  associates of any gang without regard to age.  The information
    2-9  included in a gang information system is specifically made an
   2-10  exception to all other laws which give special protections to
   2-11  information about persons under the age of majority.
   2-12        (b)  The information may be compiled on paper, by computer,
   2-13  or in any other manner reasonably useful and may be shared among
   2-14  law enforcement agencies throughout the United States by direct
   2-15  link or otherwise.
   2-16        Art. 61.03.  INFORMATION PRIVILEGED AND INADMISSIBLE.
   2-17  Information compiled in a gang information system, whether compiled
   2-18  before or after the effective date of this chapter, is not open to
   2-19  public inspection under the open records law, Chapter 424, Acts of
   2-20  the 63rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1973 (Article 6252-17a,
   2-21  Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), or any other law.  Information so
   2-22  compiled may be completely or partially released to the defense
   2-23  counsel in the course of a criminal prosecution at the sole
   2-24  discretion of the prosecutor, but its release is not required.  On
   2-25  verified motion of the defendant showing a particularized need, a
    3-1  court may order the release of the information after an in camera
    3-2  review of the information and a subsequent specific written finding
    3-3  that such a release is necessary to the trial of a case and that
    3-4  the information is not obtainable through any other method.
    3-5  Notwithstanding any prior rule to the contrary, the information
    3-6  held in a gang information system is not admissible in evidence to
    3-7  prove or disprove any element of the prosecution or defense of a
    3-8  criminal case.  The admissibility and the evidentiary value of the
    3-9  theory, information, observation, or document that generated a
   3-10  decision to add information to the system is not affected by this
   3-11  article.
   3-12        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   3-13  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   3-14  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   3-15  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   3-16  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   3-17  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   3-18  passage, and it is so enacted.