FINAL BILL REPORT

                  SSB 5573

                           C 49 L 99

                      Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Improving criminal history record dispositions.

Sponsors:  Senate Committee on Judiciary (originally sponsored by Senators Horn, Johnson, Costa, Patterson and Winsley; by request of Washington State Patrol).

Senate Committee on Judiciary

House Committee on Judiciary

Background:  The Washington State Criminal Records Privacy Act and the Criminal Justice Information Act provide for the acquisition, retention, deletion and dissemination of criminal history record information.  The policy of the acts, when read together, is to ensure complete, accurate, confidential and secure criminal history.

State and local criminal justice agencies are in the process of updating electronic data bases and now have the ability to store prosecutor-filed Acharges@ pending final disposition.  At this  time, pending Aarrest offenses@ under one year old without final disposition are disseminated without restriction.  Law enforcement officials want to be able to disseminate information on criminal charges in the same manner as arrest information.

The current statutory language limits the chief law enforcement officer to forwarding all criminal disposition reports to the prosecuting attorney.  However, in counties where an electronic method of disposition reporting has been implemented, it may be the local practice to forward the disposition report for filed felonies directly to the county clerk.  For arrests other than felonies, the disposition report is usually forwarded directly to the court of limited jurisdiction.

Summary:  The Criminal Records Privacy Act is amended to allow information regarding criminal charges to be disseminated in a similar manner as arrest information.  The Criminal Justice Information Act is amended to allow disposition reports that are currently transmitted only to the prosecuting attorney to be also transmitted to the county clerk or appropriate court of limited jurisdiction, whichever has authority.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate 48 0

House     91 0

Effective:  July 25, 1999