BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 846|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 846
Author: Galgiani (D), et al.
Amended: 5/28/14
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/8/14
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, De León, Knight, Liu, Mitchell,
Steinberg
SENATE FLOOR : 34-0, 4/21/14
AYES: Anderson, Beall, Berryhill, Block, Corbett, Correa, De
León, DeSaulnier, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Hernandez, Hill,
Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Knight, Lara, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Mitchell,
Monning, Morrell, Nielsen, Padilla, Pavley, Roth, Steinberg,
Torres, Vidak, Walters, Wolk, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Calderon, Cannella, Evans, Hancock, Wright,
Yee
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 6/16/14 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Crimes: Violent Crime Information Center
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill clarifies that local law enforcement has
the ability to request information and data maintained by the
Department of Justice (DOJ) for the purpose of linking unsolved
missing or unidentified person case with another case that was
previously unknown to be related to that case, or for the
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purpose of resolving an unsolved missing or unidentified person
case, as specified.
Assembly Amendments replace the term "criminal justice
community" with "law enforcement agencies" and add a coauthor.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Requires the Attorney General (AG) to maintain the Violent
Crime Information Center to assist in the identification and
the apprehension of persons responsible for specific violent
crimes and for the disappearance and exploitation of persons,
particularly children and dependent adults. The Center is
required to, among other things, assist local law enforcement
agencies and county district attorneys, by providing
investigative information on persons responsible for specific
violent crimes and missing person cases.
2.Requires the AG to establish and maintain a computer system
designed to effect an immediate law enforcement response to
reports of missing persons. This system must include an
active file of information concerning persons reported to it
as missing and who have not been reported as found. The
computer system is to be made available to law enforcement
agencies. However, the AG shall not release the information
if the reporting agency requests the AG in writing not to
release the information because it would impair a criminal
investigation.
3.Requires the AG to establish and maintain, upon appropriation
of funds by the Legislature, the Violent Crime Information
Network within the Center to enable DOJ crime analysts with
expertise in child abuse, missing persons, child abductions,
and sexual assaults to electronically share their data,
analysis, and findings on violent crime cases with each other,
and to electronically provide law enforcement agencies with
information to assist in the identification, tracking, and
apprehension of violent offenders. The Violent Crime
Information Network shall serve to integrate existing state,
federal, and civilian data bases into a single comprehensive
network.
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4.Requires the Violent Crime Information Center to make
accessible to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons
System specific information authorized for dissemination and
as determined appropriate by the Center that is contained in
law enforcement reports regarding missing or unidentified
persons.
5.Requires the AG to establish the Missing and Exploited
Children's Recovery Network, an automated computerized system
that has the capability to electronically transmit to all
state and local law enforcement agencies, and all cooperating
news media services, either by facsimile or computer modem, a
missing child poster that includes the name, personal
description data, and picture of the missing child.
6.Requires the AG to establish and maintain an automated violent
crime method of operation system to facilitate the
identification and apprehension of persons responsible for
murder, kidnap, including parental abduction, false
imprisonment, or sexual assault. This system shall be
responsible for identifying perpetrators of violent felonies
collected from the center and analyzing and comparing data on
missing persons in order to determine possible leads which
could assist local law enforcement agencies. This system
shall only release information about active investigations by
police and sheriffs' departments to local law enforcement
agencies.
This bill allows a law enforcement agency to request information
and data maintained by DOJ, for the purpose of linking unsolved
missing or unidentified person case with another case that was
previously unknown to be related to that case, or for the
purpose of resolving an unsolved missing or unidentified person
case.
Comments
The California DOJ maintains the "Missing and Unidentified
Persons Unit:"
Through the Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit, the
California Department of Justice assists law enforcement
agencies throughout the state in finding missing persons.
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The Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit maintains
statewide files containing the dental records, photographs
and physical characteristics of missing and unidentified
persons.
Staff assists law enforcement agencies in locating missing
persons and identifying unknown live and deceased persons
through the comparison of physical characteristics,
fingerprints, and dental/body X-rays.
While the ability of local law enforcement to ask for
information from the DOJ appears to be implicit in existing law,
this bill makes it clear that a local law enforcement agency can
request information and data from the DOJ for the purpose of
linking unsolved missing or identified person cases.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/17/14)
California District Attorneys Association
California Police Chiefs Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "The need for
SB 846 evolved after the recovery of loved ones who had been
missing in my district since the 1980s. There are 25,000 active
missing and unidentified in the AG's repository of cold cases.
I have a law enforcement task force in place and we have
identified a need to give the AG greater discretion to assist
local law enforcement with identifying similarities between
cases. Our goal is to give local law enforcement additional
tools to increase the likelihood of matching records of missing
and unidentified loved ones, and resolving their cold cases."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 6/16/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bloom, Bocanegra,
Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier,
Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell,
Gray, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein,
Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian,
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Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A. Pérez, V.
Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron,
Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bigelow, Grove, Vacancy
JG:e 6/18/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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