BILL ANALYSIS H.B. 269 By: Cook (Sims) Criminal Justice 05-22-95 Senate Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND The Criminal Justice Information System was created in 1989 to serve as the central information source on criminals for the law enforcement agencies of Texas. In developing the system, one of the project goals was the elimination of current data collection systems that will be redundant with the system information. Currently, the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Department of Criminal Justice do not have the authority to eliminate a redundant system within Chapter 60, Code of Criminal Procedure, in which state mandated information on defendants by local and county political subdivisions is reported. PURPOSE As proposed, H.B. 269 requires the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to conduct a study and adopt certain rules to eliminate the reporting of information to the Criminal Justice Information System in a redundant manner. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is granted to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in SECTION 2 (Article 60.08(a), Code of Criminal Procedure) of this bill. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Article 60.06(a), Code of Criminal Procedure, to set forth the required actions of each criminal justice agency including cooperating with the Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to identify and eliminate redundant reporting of information to the criminal justice information system (system). SECTION 2. Amends Article 60.08(a), Code of Criminal Procedure, to require DPS and TDCJ, by rule, to develop reporting procedures that ensure that the offender processing data is reported from the time an offender is arrested until the time an offender is released and provide measures and policies designed to identify and eliminate redundant reporting of information to the system. SECTION 3. Amends Chapter 60, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding Article 60.19, as follows: Art. 60.19. REPORT TO LEGISLATURE. (a) Sets forth the required actions of TDCJ regarding reports to the legislature. (b) Sets forth the contents of the report required by Subsection (a)(2). (c) Provides that this article expires September 1, 1997. SECTION 4. Requires DPS and TDCJ to adopt the rules required by Article 60.08(a), Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended by this Act, not later than January 1, 1996. SECTION 5. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.