Alabama § 41-9-621 - Powers and Duties of Commission as to Collection, Dissemination, Etc., of Crime and Offender Data, Etc.

§ 41-9-621. Powers and Duties of Commission as to Collection, Dissemination, Etc., of Crime and Offender Data, Etc.

The commission, acting through the secretary, shall do all of the following:

(1) Develop, operate, and maintain information systems that will support the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, and dissemination of criminal justice information, other data that will aid crime fighting and public safety, including data from license plate readers, biometrics and geospatial information, and data from automated-data collection systems operated by criminal justice agencies consistent with those principles of scope, security, and responsiveness prescribed by this article. The commission may adopt rules and policies regarding the collection, use, storage, dissemination, and transmittal to ALEA of this information by criminal justice agencies within the state. The information in these systems is privileged, not public record, and subject to the same criminal penalties for misuse as provided in Sections 41-9-601 and 41-9-602.

(2) Cooperate with all criminal justice agencies within the state in providing those forms, procedures, standards and related training assistance necessary for the uniform operation of the statewide ALEA crime reporting and criminal justice information systems.

(3) Offer assistance and, when practicable, instruction to all criminal justice agencies in establishing efficient systems for information management.

(4) Compile statistics on the nature and extent of crime in Alabama and compile data for planning and operating criminal justice agencies; provided, the statistics shall not identify persons. The commission shall make available all statistical information obtained to the Governor, the Legislature, the judiciary, and any other governmental agencies whose primary responsibilities include the planning, development, or execution of crime reduction programs. Access to information by governmental agencies shall be on an individual written request basis or in accordance with the commission-approved operational procedure. A governmental agency must demonstrate a need to know, the intent of any analyses and dissemination of such analyses, and shall be subject to any security provisions deemed necessary by the commission.

(5) Periodically publish statistics, no less frequently than annually, that do not identify persons and report such information to the chief executive officers of the agencies and branches of government concerned; the information shall accurately reflect the level and nature of crime in this state and the general operation of the agencies within the criminal justice system.

(6) Make available, upon request, to all criminal justice agencies in this state, to all federal criminal justice and criminal identification agencies, and to state criminal justice and criminal identification agencies in other states, any information in the files of ALEA that will aid these agencies in crime fighting and public safety; for this purpose ALEA shall operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The commission may adopt rules and policies to share criminal justice information with international criminal justice agencies.

(7) Cooperate with other agencies of this state, the crime information agencies of other states, and the uniform crime reports and national crime information center systems of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or any entity designated by the federal government as the central clearinghouse for criminal justice information systems in developing and conducting an interstate, national, and international system of criminal identification, records, and statistics.

(8) Provide the administrative mechanisms and procedures necessary to respond to those individuals who file requests to view their own records as provided for elsewhere in this article and to cooperate in the correction of the central ALEA records and those of contributing agencies when their accuracy has been successfully challenged either through the related contributing agencies or by court order issued on behalf of the individual.

(9) Institute the necessary measures in the design, implementation, and continued operation of the criminal justice information systems to ensure the privacy and security of the systems. Any privacy and security measures must meet standards to be set by the commission as well as those set by the nationally operated systems for interstate sharing of such information.

(10) Designate in writing agents or employees of ALEA who shall be and are constituted law enforcement officers of the State of Alabama with full and unlimited police power and jurisdiction to enforce the laws of this state pertaining to the operation and administration of the information systems regulated through the authority of the commission and the storage, use, and dissemination of information processed therein.

(11) a. Establish guidelines for violations of data reporting or unlawful dissemination.

b. The measures established may include, but are not limited to, any of the following:

1. Suspension of access to ALEA information systems pending investigation.

2. Temporary or permanent suspension of access to ALEA information systems if it is determined a violation occurred.

3. Implementation of a user agency’s administrative sanction.

4. Pursuance of prosecution for misuse of information.

5. Denial of access if convicted of any criminal offense.

c. For the purpose of this section, the commission and ALEA shall be exempt from Sections 41-22-12 through 41-22-21, inclusive.