Unlawful Release of Personal Information of Criminal Justice Officials. No person may knowingly make available on the Internet the personal information of a peace officer, corrections person, justice, judge, commissioner, public defender, or prosecutor if the dissemination poses an imminent and serious threat to the public officers or their immediate families. It must be reasonably apparent to the person making the information available that the threat is serious and imminent. It is not a violation if a person working in the county auditor's or county assessor's office publishes this information in good faith and in the ordinary course of business.
Personal information includes:
Any person who suffers damages as a result of the restricted Internet publications may bring a civil action for actual damages, reasonable attorney's fees and costs, and additional damages of up to $1,000 for each day the personal information was available on the Internet.
Criminal Justice Participants Eligible for the Address Confidentiality Program. Any criminal justice participant or election official who is a target for threats of harassment or cyber-harassment shall be eligible for the address confidentiality program. A criminal justice participant includes:
Bailiffs of the supreme court are authorized to conduct threat assessments on behalf of supreme court justices. The supreme court shall ensure that supreme court bailiffs are qualified by training and experience. Bailiffs of the supreme court are authorized to receive criminal history record information that includes non-conviction data for purposes exclusively related to the investigation of any person making a threat against a supreme court justice. Dissemination or use of criminal history records or non-conviction data for purposes other than authorized is prohibited. Founded threats must be referred to local law enforcement for further action. Local law enforcement is authorized to report the outcome and any anticipated action to bailiffs of the supreme court.
A person shall not knowingly make available on the internet the personal information of an eligible individual if the dissemination of the personal information poses a threat to the eligible individual's safety or safety of the eligible individual's immediate family. It is not a violation if an employee of the county auditor or assessor publishes personal information, in good faith, on the county website in the ordinary course of carrying out public functions provided the employee complies with requests to remove personal information.
Any agency, business, person, data broker, or website who receives a request from an eligible individual to remove personal information from the internet must comply within ten business days of receiving the request.
The list of criminal justice officials protected from the unlawful dissemination of personal information is expanded and renamed an eligible individual. The former list of officials now also includes a judicial officer, court clerk, administrative law judge for the Office of Administrative Hearings, and a criminal justice participant. A judicial officer is defined and includes a justice, judge, commissioner, or magistrate of any federal, state, or local court, and administrative law judges appointed under the Administrative Procedure Act.
For eligibility to participate in the address confidentiality program, a criminal justice participant seeking protection from a threat or harassment is expanded to include a federal, state, or local court judicial officer or court administrator or court staff, and also a state or local clerk staff.
Court security consultants of the administrative office of the courts are authorized to conduct threat assessments on behalf of judicial officers. The administrative office of the courts shall ensure that court security consultants are qualified by training and experience for these duties. Court security consultants are authorized to receive criminal history record information that includes non-conviction data for exclusive purpose of the investigation of any threat against a judicial officer. Dissemination of criminal history records for any other purpose is prohibited. Founded threats must be referred to local law enforcement.
PRO: Threats against Washington State judicial staff has increased by 70 percent over the past few years. When safety is compromised the independence of our courts are at risk. As you know clerks keep court records and our names are on those documents. There are threats against clerks and we are the only participants of the justice system that are not included in the definition of a criminal justice participant.
OTHER: We support the clerks, but there are implementation hurdles such as the fine. The auditors computer system doesn't allow for the redaction of files. The new language should be removed so they don't get fined. There are 300 million records in the state archives and some of those are auditor records. We need to better understand our responsibilities.
About 20 years ago this statute was found unconstitutional because it used the term "harassment or intimidate," and using the word "threat" may be unconstitutional for the same reasons. There are also constitutional protections for posting information on the internet and it may be unconstitutional to require the information to be removed in 10 days.
PRO: Catherine Cornwall, King County Superior Court Clerk; Judge Sean O'Donnell, Superior Court Judges' Association; J. Lee Schultz, Administrative Office of the Courts, Board for Judicial Administration.