By Madla                                               S.B. No. 634
         76R6709 GWK-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the reporting of criminal justice statistics.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 411, Government Code, is
 1-5     amended by adding Section 411.048 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 411.048.  CRIMINAL JUSTICE REPORT AUDITS.  (a)  In this
 1-7     section, "criminal justice record" means:
 1-8                 (1)  information concerning the number and nature of
 1-9     criminal offenses reported or known to have been committed in the
1-10     state or in a political subdivision of the state and the response
1-11     by the legal system to the commission of those offenses; and
1-12                 (2)  any other information useful in the study of crime
1-13     and the administration of justice.
1-14           (b)  A governmental body that collects criminal justice
1-15     records must have the records audited by a certified public
1-16     accountant before reporting those records to the department or
1-17     before reporting those records to the United States Department of
1-18     Justice for inclusion in the Uniform Crime Report.
1-19           (c)  The director shall prescribe uniform accounting and
1-20     reporting procedures that each governmental body must use in
1-21     preparing reports made  under Subsection (b).  The procedures must
1-22     comply with generally accepted accounting principles as established
1-23     by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board and the American
1-24     Institute of Certified Public Accountants or their successors.
 2-1           (d)  An audit report prepared under Subsection (b) is public
 2-2     information, as defined by Section 552.002.
 2-3           SECTION 2.  The director of the Texas Department of Public
 2-4     Safety shall prescribe uniform accounting and reporting procedures
 2-5     as required by Section 411.048, Government Code, as added by this
 2-6     Act, not later than October 1, 1999.  The requirement under Section
 2-7     411.048, Government Code, as added by this Act, that all criminal
 2-8     justice record reports be audited before the reports are provided
 2-9     to the Texas Department of Public Safety or the United States
2-10     Department of Justice applies to all reports provided to those
2-11     departments on or after July 1, 2000.
2-12           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-18     passage, and it is so enacted.