Honorable John Carona, Chair, Senate Committee on Transportation & Homeland Security
FROM:
John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB418 by Carona (Relating to the compilation, maintenance, and release of inforamtion in a criminal street gang intelligence database by law enforcement agencies and criminal justice agencies.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to require a criminal justice agency to compile, maintain, and release criminal information into an intelligence database for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting the criminal activities of criminal combinations or criminal street gangs. The bill would require a local law enforcement agency in a municipality with a population of 50,000 or more or in a county with a population of 100,000 or more to compile and maintain in a local or regional intelligence database, criminal information relating to a criminal street gang as provided by a criminal justice agency. Under current statute, these requirements are optional. The bill also requires the Department of Public Safety to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the appropriate federal department or agency to provide training to people who enter or retrieve information from an intelligence database. The bill would take effect September 1, 2009.
Based on analysis by affected state agencies, it is assumed that provisions of the bill could be implemented using existing resources.
Local Government Impact
Fiscal impact to local law enforcement agencies would depend on whether the agency already compiles and maintains a local or regional intelligence database related to criminal street gang activity. Costs varied by agencies reporting they would incur costs, but each indicated the costs for staff and computer programming would be insignificant. The highest estimated cost for the first year of implementation was reported by HarrisCounty at $372,196 and the lowest estimated cost was reported by the Abilene Police Department at $20,000. Staffing costs would continue in each subsequent year, while capital outlay and programming would not, other than periodically.