ACM C.S.H.B. 2874 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE C.S.H.B. 2874 By: Goodman 4-9-97 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND In 1995, the 74th Legislature approved House Bill 466 which added Chapter 61 to the Code of Criminal Procedure to authorize law enforcement agencies to compile, maintain, and disseminate information relating to criminal combinations. Pursuant to this authority, law enforcement agencies have developed "gangbooks" in which information on known or suspected gang members is collected. These "gangbooks" have proven to be a valuable tool for combating gang activity and solving gang-related crimes. Under the current law, it is not clear whether law enforcement agencies which face gang activity crossing over jurisdictional lines may work together and combine into a single database the information they collect under this chapter. In addition, current law requires that information on an individual in the database be destroyed after two years unless the individual has been charged with criminal activity. This requirement is difficult to implement because not all charges against individuals are reported uniformly or reported to a central database. Further, if an individual is incarcerated for more than two years, the information on that individual would be required to be destroyed even though that individual may remain involved in a gang. PURPOSE HB 2874, as substituted, amends Chapter 61 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to clarify that law enforcement agencies may send information collected under Chapter 61 to a regional database. CSHB 2874 requires that information collected under Chapter 61 must be destroyed after three years if the individual has not been arrested for certain criminal activity. CSHB 2874 also provides that time incarcerated in the institutional division or state jail division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for service of a felony sentence or in the Texas Youth Commission for service of a felony sentence or commitment is not counted in the three-year period. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1: Amends Article 61.03, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding Subsection (d) which allows a local criminal justice agency to send information collected under Chapter 61 to a regional database. SECTION 2: Amends Article 61.04(a), Code of Criminal Procedure, to correct a cross reference to the Family Code. SECTION 3: Amends Article 61.06(a), Code of Criminal Procedure, to require that information collected under Chapter 61 relating to a child, as that term is defined by Section 51.02, Family Code, be destroyed after three years, rather than two years, if the individual has not been arrested for criminal activity as reported to the Department of Public Safety under Chapter 60 of this code or Chapter 58, Family Code or fighting with another in a public place under Section 42.01(a)(6), Penal Code. Adds Subsection (b) to Article 61.06, Code of Criminal Procedure, to provide that time incarcerated in the institutional division or state jail division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for service of a felony sentence or in the Texas Youth Commission for service of a felony sentence or commitment is not counted in the three year period after which information must be destroyed. SECTION 4: The change in law made by CSHB 2874 applies to criminal information without regard to whether the information originated or was first compiled before, on, or after the effective date of this Act. SECTION 5: Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The original bill provided, in Section 1, that a local criminal justice agency may send information collected under Chapter 61, Code of Criminal Procedure, to statewide and regional databases. The substitute provides that a local criminal justice agency may only send information collected under Chapter 61, Code of Criminal Procedure, to a regional database. Section 3 of the original bill provided that information collected under Chapter 61, Code of Criminal Procedure, must be destroyed after 3 years if the individual has not been arrested for certain criminal activity. The substitute provides that information collected under Chapter 61, Code of Criminal Procedure, relating to a child, as that term is defined by Section 51.02, Family Code, must be destroyed after three years if the individual has not been arrested for certain criminal activity.