HBA-LCA H.B. 1712 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1712 By: Goodman Juvenile Justice & Family Issues 3/5/1999 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, information on gang activity may only be collected and shared at the regional level. Despite an increase in gang activity, and greater mobility and organization among criminal street gangs, law enforcement officers lack the ability to collect and share gang information on a statewide basis efficiently and inexpensively. H.B. 1712 allows the creation of a statewide database on gangs. The bill requires removal of the information collected on juveniles, who comprise 75 percent of gang membership, after five years, providing that the juvenile has not been arrested or taken into custody for certain offenses during that time. 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 (Definitions), by amending Subdivision (1) and adding Subdivision (7), as follows: (1) Provides that "criminal street gang" has the meaning assigned by Section 71.01, Penal Code (Definitions). Makes conforming changes. (7) Defines "department" as the Department of Public Safety. SECTION 2.Amends Article 61.03(c), Code of Criminal Procedure, as follows: (c) Requires, rather than prohibits, a criminal justice agency that compiles information on criminal street gangs under Article 61.02 to send a copy of the information to the statewide database maintained by the department. SECTION 3.Amends Article 61.06, Code of Criminal Procedure, as follows: Art. 61.06. New Title: REMOVAL OF RECORDS. Deletes "destruction" from existing title. (a) Increases from two to five the number of years information on criminal street gangs must be maintained before it is removed from the statewide database if the information relates to the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity engaged in by a child and if the subject of the information has not been arrested for, rather than charged with, certain criminal activity. That criminal activity includes activity reported to the department under Chapter 60, Code of Criminal Procedure (Criminal History Record System), or under Section 42.01(a)(6) or (11) (Disorderly Conduct and Related Offenses), Penal Code. Provides for the removal of information if the subject of the information has not been taken into custody for delinquent conduct under Chapter 58, Family Code (Records; Juvenile Justice Information System) or for an offense defined under Section 42.01(a)(6) or (11), Penal Code. (b) Provides that the five-year period does not include any period during which the subject of the information has been committed to the Texas Youth Commission for a felony offense or confined to Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities. SECTION 4. Amends Chapter 61, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding Article 61.07, to require the department to establish and maintain a statewide database of criminal information. SECTION 5. Repealer: Article 61.03(d), Code of Criminal Procedure, which allows local criminal justice agencies to send information to regional databases. SECTION 7.Effective date: September 1, 1999. SECTION 8.Emergency clause.