GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1991

H	1 

HOUSE BILL 980

Short Title:  Criminal History Check/Employees.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Representatives Anderson; and Justus.
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Referred to:  Judiciary III.
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April 19, 1991

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO RENAME THE DIVISION OF CRIMINAL STATISTICS AND TO AUTHORIZE IT TO PROVIDE CRIMINAL RECORD CHECKS TO EMPLOYEES WHO PROVIDE DIRECT CAREGIVING SERVICES TO THE PUBLIC.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  Article 3 of Chapter 114 of the General Statutes reads as rewritten:
"ARTICLE 3.
"Division of Criminal Information.
"§ 114-10.  Division of Criminal Information.
The Attorney General shall set up in the Department of Justice a division to be designated as the Division of Criminal Information.  There shall be assigned to this Division by the Attorney General duties as follows:
(1) 	To collect and correlate information in criminal law administration, including crimes committed, arrests made, dispositions on preliminary hearings, prosecutions, convictions, acquittals, punishment, appeals, together with the age, race, and sex of the offender, and such other information concerning crime and criminals as may appear significant or helpful.  To correlate such information with the operations of agencies and institutions charged with the supervision of offenders on probation, in penal and correctional institutions, on parole and pardon, so as to show the volume, variety and tendencies of crime and criminals and the workings of successive links in the machinery set up for the administration of the criminal law in connection with the arrests, trial, punishment, probation, prison parole and pardon of all criminals in North Carolina.
(2) 	To collect, correlate, and maintain access to information that will assist in the performance of duties required in the administration of criminal justice throughout the State.  This information may include, but is not limited to, motor vehicle registration, drivers' licenses, wanted and missing persons, stolen property, warrants, stolen vehicles, firearms registration, drugs, drug users and parole and probation histories.  In performing this function, the Division may arrange to use information available in other agencies and units of State, local and federal government, but shall provide security measures to insure that such information shall be made available only to those whose duties, relating to the administration of justice, require such information.
(3) 	To make scientific study, analysis and comparison from the information so collected and correlated with similar information gathered by federal agencies, and to provide the Governor and the General Assembly with the information so collected biennially, or more often if required by the Governor.
(4) 	To perform all the duties heretofore imposed by law upon the Attorney General with respect to criminal information.
(5) 	To perform such other duties as may be from time to time prescribed by the Attorney General.
"§ 114-10.1.  Police Information Network.
(a)	The Division of Criminal Information is authorized to establish, devise, maintain and operate, under the control and supervision of the Attorney General, a system for receiving and disseminating to participating agencies information collected, maintained and correlated under authority of G.S. 114-10 of this Article.  The system shall be known as the Police Information Network.
(b)	The Attorney General is authorized to cooperate with the Division of Motor Vehicles, Department of Administration, Department of Correction and other State, local and federal agencies and organizations in carrying out the purpose and intent of this section, and to utilize, in cooperation with other State agencies and to the extent as may be practical, computers and related equipment as may be operated by other State agencies.
(c)	The Attorney General, after consultation with participating agencies, shall adopt rules and regulations governing the organization and administration of the Police Information Network, including rules and regulations governing the types of information relating to the administration of criminal justice to be entered into the system, and who shall have access to such information.  The rules and regulations governing access to the Police Information Network shall not prohibit an attorney who has entered a criminal proceeding in accordance with G.S. 15A-141 from obtaining information relevant to that criminal proceeding.  The Attorney General may call upon the Governor's Committee on Law and Order for advice and such other assistance that the Committee may be authorized to render.
"§ 114-11.  Repealed by Session Laws 1969, c. 1190, s. 57.
"§ 114-11.1.  Repealed by Session Laws 1965, c. 310, s. 4.
"§ 114-11.2.  Authority to provide criminal history checks to employers.
The Division of Criminal Information may provide at the fee set forth in G.S. 114-19.1 a criminal history check on an applicant, with the applicant's consent, to any employer.  These criminal history checks shall only be obtained through the Division's offices in Raleigh.  However, the Division shall give priority to requests for criminal history checks to law enforcement agencies.  The Attorney General may adopt rules to implement this section."
Sec. 2.  The Revisor of the Statutes shall change any remaining references to the "Division of Criminal Statistics" in the General Statutes to the "Division of Criminal Information."
Sec. 3.  This act is effective upon ratification.