22-5001. National crime prevention and privacy compact; contents.
22-5001
22-5001. National crime prevention and privacycompact; contents.The National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact is herebyratified, enactedinto law and entered into with all jurisdictions legally joining in theCompact, insubstantially the form set forth in this section.
As used in this Compact, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Attorney General" means the Attorney General of the United States.
(2) "Compact officer" means:
(a) With respect to the Federal Government, an official so designated by theDirector of the FBI; and
(b) With respect to a party state, the chief administrator of the state'scriminalhistory record repository or a designee of the chief administrator who is aregularfull-time employee of the repository.
(3) "Council" means the Compact Council established under Article VI.
(4) "Criminal history record repository" means the state agency designated bythegovernor or other appropriate executive official or the legislature of a statetoperform centralized recordkeeping functions for criminal history records andservices in the state.
(5) (a) "Criminal history records" means information collected by criminaljusticeagencies on individuals consisting of identifiable descriptions and notationsofarrests, detentions, indictments, or other formal criminal charges and anydisposition arising therefrom, including acquittal, sentencing, correctionalsupervision, or release.
(b) The term does not include identification information such as fingerprintrecords if the information does not indicate involvement of the individual withthecriminal justice system.
(6) "Criminal justice" includes activities relating to the detection,apprehension,detention, pretrial release, post trial release, prosecution, adjudication,correctional supervision, or rehabilitation of accused persons or criminaloffenders. The administration of criminal justice includes criminalidentificationactivities and the collection, storage, and dissemination of criminal historyrecords.
(7) (a) "Criminal justice agency" means:
(i) Courts; and
(ii) A governmental agency or any subunit of an agency that performs theadministration of criminal justice pursuant to a statute or executive order andallocates a substantial part of its annual budget to the administration ofcriminaljustice.
(b) The term includes federal and state inspector general offices.
(8) "Criminal justice services" means services provided by the FBI tocriminaljustice agencies in response to a request for information about a particularindividual or as an update to information previously provided for criminaljusticepurposes.
(9) "Direct access" means access to the national identification index bycomputerterminal or other automated means not requiring the assistance of orinterventionby any other party or agency.
(10) "Executive order" means an order of the President of the United Statesorthe chief executive officer of a state that has the force of law and that ispromulgated in accordance with applicable law.
(11) "FBI" means the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(12) (a) "III System" means the Interstate Identification Index System,whichisthe cooperative federal-state system for the exchange of criminal historyrecords.
(b) The term includes the national identification index, the nationalfingerprint file,and to the extent of their participation in the system, the criminal historyrecordrepositories of the states and the FBI.
(13) "National fingerprint file" means a database of fingerprints or of otheruniquely personal identifying information that relates to an arrested orchargedindividual and that is maintained by the FBI to provide positive identificationofrecord subjects indexed in the III System.
(14) "National identification index" means an index maintained by the FBIconsisting of names, identifying numbers, and other descriptive informationrelating to record subjects about whom there are criminal history records inthe IIISystem.
(15) "National indices" means the national identification index and thenationalfingerprint file.
(16) "Noncriminal justice purposes" means uses of criminal history recordsforpurposes authorized by federal or state law other than purposes relating tocriminal justice activities, including employment suitability, licensingdeterminations, immigration and naturalization matters, and national securityclearances.
(17) "Nonparty state" means a state that has not ratified this Compact.
(18) "Party state" means a state that has ratified this Compact.
(19) "Positive identification" means a determination, based upon a comparisonoffingerprints or other equally reliable biometric identification techniques,that thesubject of a record search is the same person as the subject of a criminalhistoryrecord or records indexed in the III System. Identifications based solely uponacomparison of subjects' names or other nonunique identification characteristicsor numbers, or combinations thereof, does not constitute positiveidentification.
(20) "Sealed record information" means:
(a) With respect to adults, that portion of a record that is:
(i) Not available for criminal justice uses;
(ii) Not supported by fingerprints or other accepted means of positiveidentification; or
(iii) Subject to restrictions on dissemination for noncriminal justicepurposespursuant to a court order related to a particular subject or pursuant to afederal orstate statute that requires action on a sealing petition filed by a particularrecordsubject; and
(b) With respect to juveniles, whatever each state determines is a sealedrecordunder its own law and procedure.
(21) "State" means any state, territory, or possession of the United States,theDistrict of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
The purposes of this Compact are to:
(1) Provide a legal framework for the establishment of a cooperativefederal-statesystem for the interstate and federal-state exchange of criminal historyrecordsfor noncriminal justice uses;
(2) Require the FBI to permit use of the national identification index andthenational fingerprint file by each party state and to provide, in a timelyfashion,federal and state criminal history records to requesting states, in accordancewiththe terms of this Compact and with rules, procedures, and standards establishedby the Council under Article VI;
(3) Require party states to provide information and records for the nationalidentification index and the national fingerprint file and to provide criminalhistoryrecords, in a timely fashion, to criminal history record repositories of otherstatesand the Federal Government for noncriminal justice purposes, in accordance withthe terms of this Compact and with rules, procedures, and standards establishedby the Council under Article VI;
(4) Provide for the establishment of a Council to monitor III Systemoperationsand to prescribe system rules and procedures for the effective and properoperation of the III System for noncriminal justice purposes; and
(5) Require the FBI and each party state to adhere to III System standardsconcerning record dissemination and use, response times, system security, dataquality, and other duly established standards, including those that enhance theaccuracy and privacy of such records.
(1) The Director of the FBI shall:
(a) Appoint an FBI Compact officer who shall:
(i) Administer this Compact within the Department of Justice and amongfederalagencies and other agencies and organizations that submit search requests tothe FBI pursuant to Article V(3);
(ii) Ensure that Compact provisions and rules, procedures, and standardsprescribed by the Council under Article VI are complied with by the Departmentof Justice and the federal agencies and other agencies and organizationsreferred to in subsection (1)(a)(i) of this Article III; and
(iii) Regulate the use of records received by means of the III System frompartystates when such records are supplied by the FBI directly to other federalagencies;
(b) Provide to federal agencies and to state criminal history recordrepositoriescriminal history records maintained in its database for the noncriminal justicepurposes described in Article IV, including:
(i) Information from nonparty states; and
(ii) Information from party states that is available from the FBI through theIIISystem, but is not available from the party state through the III System;
(c) Provide a telecommunications network and maintain centralized facilitiesforthe exchange of criminal history records for both criminal justice purposes andthe noncriminal justice purposes described in Article IV and ensure that theexchange of the records for criminal justice purposes has priority overexchangefor noncriminal justice purposes; and
(d) Modify or enter into user agreements with nonparty state criminal historyrecord repositories to require them to establish record request proceduresconforming to those prescribed in Article V.
(2) Each party state shall:
(a) Appoint a Compact officer who shall:
(i) Administer this Compact within that state;
(ii) Ensure that Compact provisions and rules, procedures, and standardsestablished by the Council under Article VI are complied with in the state; and
(iii) Regulate the in-state use of records received by means of the IIISystemfromthe FBI or from other party states;
(b) Establish and maintain a criminal history record repository, which shallprovide:
(i) Information and records for the national identification index and thenationalfingerprint file; and
(ii) The state's III System-indexed criminal history records for noncriminaljusticepurposes described in Article IV;
(c) Participate in the national fingerprint file; and
(d) Provide and maintain telecommunications links and related equipmentnecessary to support the criminal justice services set forth in this Compact.
(3) In carrying out their responsibilities under this Compact, the FBI andeachparty state shall comply with III System rules, procedures, and standards dulyestablished by the Council concerning record dissemination and use, responsetimes, data quality, system security, accuracy, privacy protection, and otheraspects of III System operation.
(4) (a) Use of the III System for noncriminal justice purposes authorizedinthisCompact must be managed so as not to diminish the level of services provided insupport of criminal justice purposes.
(b) Administration of Compact provisions may not reduce the level of serviceavailable to authorized noncriminal justice users on the effective date of thisCompact.
Article IV. Authorized Record Disclosures
(1) To the extent authorized by section 552a of Title 5, United States Code(commonly known as the Privacy Act of 1974), the FBI shall provide on requestcriminal history records, excluding sealed record information, to statecriminalhistory record repositories for noncriminal justice purposes allowed by federalstatute, federal executive order, or a state statute which has been approved bythe Attorney General and which authorizes national indices checks.
(2) The FBI, to the extent authorized by section 552a of Title 5, UnitedStatesCode (commonly known as the Privacy Act of 1974), and state criminal historyrecord repositories shall provide criminal history records, excluding sealedrecordinformation, to criminal justice agencies and other governmental ornongovernmental agencies for noncriminal justice purposes allowed by federalstatute, federal executive order, or a state statute that has been approved bytheAttorney General, that explicitly authorizes national indices checks.
(3) Any record obtained under this Compact may be used only for the officialpurposes for which the record was requested. Each Compact officer shallestablish procedures, consistent with this Compact and with rules, procedures,and standards established by the Council under Article VI, which proceduresshall protect the accuracy and privacy of the records and shall:
(a) Ensure that records obtained under this Compact are used only byauthorizedofficials for authorized purposes;
(b) Require that subsequent record checks are requested to obtain currentinformation whenever a new need arises; and
(c) Ensure that record entries that may not legally be used for a particularnoncriminal justice purpose are deleted from the response and, if noinformationauthorized for release remains, an appropriate "no record" response iscommunicated to the requesting official.
(1) Subject fingerprints or other approved forms of positive identificationmust besubmitted with all requests for criminal history record checks for noncriminaljustice purposes.
(2) Each request for a criminal history record check utilizing the nationalindicesmade under any approved state statute must be submitted through that state'scriminal history record repository. A state criminal history record repositoryshallprocess an interstate request for noncriminal justice purposes through thenational indices only if the request is transmitted through another statecriminalhistory record repository or the FBI.
(3) Each request for criminal history record checks utilizing the nationalindicesmade under federal authority must be submitted through the FBI or, if the statecriminal history record repository consents to process fingerprint submissions,through the criminal history record repository in the state in which therequestoriginated. Direct access to the national identification index by entitiesother thanthe FBI and state criminal history records repositories may not be permittedfornoncriminal justice purposes.
(4) A state criminal history record repository or the FBI:
(a) May charge a fee, in accordance with applicable law, for handling arequestinvolving fingerprint processing for noncriminal justice purposes; and
(b) May not charge a fee for providing criminal history records in responseto anelectronic request for a record that does not involve a request to processfingerprints.
(5) (a) If a state criminal history record repository cannot positivelyidentify thesubject of a record request made for noncriminal justice purposes, the request,together with fingerprints or other approved identifying information, must beforwarded to the FBI for a search of the national indices.
(b) If, with respect to a request forwarded by a state criminal historyrecordrepository under subsection (5)(a), the FBI positively identifies the subjectashaving a III System-indexed record or records:
(i) The FBI shall so advise the state criminal history record repository; and
(ii) The state criminal history record repository is entitled to obtain theadditionalcriminal history record information from the FBI or other state criminalhistoryrecord repositories.
Article VI. Establishment of Compact Council
(1) (a) There is established a Council to be known as the Compact Council,which has the authority to promulgate rules and procedures governing the use ofthe III System for noncriminal justice purposes, not to conflict with FBIadministration of the III System for criminal justice purposes.
(b) The Council shall:
(i) Continue in existence as long as this Compact remains in effect;
(ii) Be located, for administrative purposes, within the FBI; and
(iii) Be organized and hold its first meeting as soon as practicable aftertheeffective date of this Compact.
(2) The Council must be composed of 15 members, each of whom must beappointed by the Attorney General, as follows:
(a) Nine members, each of whom shall serve a 2-year term, who must beselected from among the Compact officers of party states based on therecommendation of the Compact officers of all party states, except that in theabsence of the requisite number of Compact officers available to serve, thechiefadministrators of the criminal history record repositories of nonparty statesmustbe eligible to serve on an interim basis;
(b) Two at-large members, nominated by the Director of the FBI, each of whomshall serve a 3-year term, of whom:
(i) One must be a representative of the criminal justice agencies of theFederalGovernment and may not be an employee of the FBI; and
(ii) One must be a representative of the noncriminal justice agencies of theFederal Government;
(c) Two at-large members, nominated by the Chairman of the Council once theChairman is elected pursuant to subsection (3) of this Article VI, each of whomshall serve a 3-year term, of whom:
(i) One must be a representative of state or local criminal justice agencies;and
(ii) One must be a representative of state or local noncriminal justiceagencies;
(d) One member who shall serve a 3-year term and who shall simultaneously bea member of the FBI's advisory policy board on criminal justice informationservices, nominated by the membership of that policy board; and
(e) One member, nominated by the Director of the FBI, who shall serve a3-yearterm and who must be an employee of the FBI.
(3) (a) From its membership, the Council shall elect a Chairman and a ViceChairman of the Council. Both the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Council:
(i) Must be a Compact officer, unless there is no Compact officer on theCouncilwho is willing to serve, in which case the Chairman may be an at-large member;and
(ii) Shall serve 2-year terms and may be reelected to only one additional2-yearterm.
(b) The Vice Chairman of the Council shall serve as the Chairman of theCouncilin the absence of the Chairman.
(4) (a) The Council shall meet at least once each year at the call of theChairman. Each meeting of the Council must be open to the public. The Councilshall provide prior public notice in the Federal Register of each meeting oftheCouncil, including the matters to be addressed at the meeting.
(b) A majority of the Council or any committee of the Council shallconstitute aquorum of the Council or of a committee, respectively, for the conduct ofbusiness. A lesser number may meet to hold hearings, take testimony, orconduct any business not requiring a vote.
(5) The Council shall make available for public inspection and copying at theCouncil office within the FBI and shall publish in the Federal Register anyrules,procedures, or standards established by the Council.
(6) The Council may request from the FBI reports, studies, statistics, orotherinformation or materials that the Council determines to be necessary to enablethe Council to perform its duties under this Compact. The FBI, to the extentauthorized by law, may provide assistance or information upon a request.
(7) The Chairman may establish committees as necessary to carry out thisCompact and may prescribe their membership, responsibilities, and duration.
This Compact takes effect upon being entered into by two or more states asbetween those states and the Federal Government. When additional statessubsequently enter into this Compact, it becomes effective among those statesand the Federal Government and each party state that has previously ratifiedit.When ratified, this Compact has the full force and effect of law within theratifyingjurisdictions. The form of ratification must be in accordance with the laws oftheexecuting state.
(1) Administration of this Compact may not interfere with the management andcontrol of the Director of the FBI over the FBI's collection and disseminationofcriminal history records and the advisory function of the FBI's advisory policyboard chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) forallpurposes other than noncriminal justice.
(2) Nothing in this Compact requires the FBI to obligate or expend fundsbeyondthose appropriated to the FBI.
(3) Nothing in this Compact diminishes or lessens the obligations,responsibilities, and authorities of any state, whether a party state or anonpartystate, or of any criminal history record repository or other subdivision orcomponent thereof, under the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, theJudiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 1973 (Public Law 92-544), orregulations and guidelines promulgated thereunder, including the rules andprocedures promulgated by the Council under Article VI(1), regarding the useand dissemination of criminal history records and information.
(1) This Compact shall bind each party state until renounced by the partystate.
(2) Any renunciation of this Compact by a party state must:
(a) Be effected in the same manner by which the party state ratified thisCompact; and
(b) Become effective 180 days after written notice of renunciation isprovided bythe party state to each other party state and to the Federal Government.
The provisions of this Compact are severable. If any phrase, clause, sentence,orprovision of this Compact is declared to be contrary to the constitution of anyparticipating state or to the Constitution of the United States or if theapplicabilityof any phrase, clause, sentence, or provision of this Compact to anygovernment,agency, person, or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainderofthis Compact and the applicability of the remainder of the Compact to anygovernment, agency, person, or circumstance is not affected by theseverability.If a portion of this Compact is held contrary to the constitution of any partystate,all other portions of this Compact remain in full force and effect as to theremaining party states and in full force and effect as to the party stateaffected,as to all other provisions.
(1) The Council:
(a) Has initial authority to make determinations with respect to any disputeregarding:
(i) Interpretation of this Compact;
(ii) Any rule or standard established by the Council pursuant to Article VI;and
(iii) Any dispute or controversy between any parties to this Compact; and
(b) Shall hold a hearing concerning any dispute described in subsection(1)(a) ata regularly scheduled meeting of the Council and only render a decision basedupon a majority vote of the members of the Council. The decision must bepublished pursuant to the requirements of Article VI(5).
(2) The FBI shall exercise immediate and necessary action to preserve theintegrity of the III System, to maintain system policy and standards, toprotect the accuracy and privacy of records, and to prevent abuses until theCouncil holds ahearing on the matters.
(3) The FBI or a party state may appeal any decision of the Council to theAttorney General and after that appeal may file suit in the appropriateDistrictCourt of the United States that has original jurisdiction of all cases orcontroversies arising under this Compact. Any suit arising under this Compactand initiated in a state court must be removed to the appropriate DistrictCourt ofthe United States in the manner provided by section 1446 of Title 28, UnitedStates Code, or other statutory authority.
History: L. 2001, ch. 97, § 1; April 19.