South Carolina § 16-8-330 - Development and management of statewide criminal gang database.

§ 16-8-330. Development and management of statewide criminal gang database.

(A) Pursuant to achieving the intent and purpose of this article, the State Law Enforcement Division must develop and manage a statewide criminal gang database to facilitate the exchange of information between federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies pursuant to the intent and purpose of this article.

(B) All state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies must furnish information they acquire relating to criminal gangs and gang-related incidents to the State Law Enforcement Division to be included in the database.

(C) The State Law Enforcement Division may determine if information relating to criminal gangs, gang-related incidents, patterns of gang activity, or members or associates of criminal gangs received from federal law enforcement agencies and law enforcement agencies of other states is to be included in the database.

(D) Criminal information relating to a criminal gang and collected pursuant to this article must be consistent with the criteria required on the effective date of this act by the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Crime Information Center. The State Law Enforcement Division is authorized pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act in Chapter 23, Title 1:

(1) to promulgate emergency regulations to make the criteria effective for collection of database information until such time as permanent regulations are promulgated and affirmatively approved by the General Assembly;

(2) to promulgate permanent regulations consistent with the criteria required on the effective date of this act, which are to be affirmatively approved by the General Assembly, and to amend those regulations to reflect changes made in the criteria; and

(3) to promulgate permanent regulations concerning the punishment associated with intentional misuse of the database.

(E) Information relating to a person who does not have a criminal arrest record and is not a member of a criminal gang must be used only for intelligence, investigative, and tracking purposes.

(F) The information contained in this database is not subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

HISTORY: 2007 Act No. 82, SECTION 5, eff June 12, 2007.