Senate Bill No. 602
(By Senators Foster and McCabe)
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[Introduced February 16, 2006 ; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §24-6-13 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to authorizing an emergency
services center, at the director's discretion, to provide,
upon proper request and payment of a reasonable fee, duplicate
audio recordings of emergency service calls reporting criminal
conduct.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §24-6-13 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. LOCAL EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM.
§24-6-13. Confidentiality of certain calls to county answering
points and records; retention of records.
(a) Except as provided by the provisions of this section,
calls for emergency service to a county answering point are not
confidential. All calls for emergency service reporting alleged criminal conduct which are recorded electronically, in writing or
in any other form are to be kept confidential by the county
answering point receiving the call and may be released only
pursuant to an order entered by a court of competent jurisdiction,
a valid subpoena or through the course of discovery in a criminal
action requiring the release of the information: Provided, That
nothing contained in this section may be construed as preventing
the county answering point from releasing information to a
responding agency as may be necessary for that agency's response on
a call or the completion of necessary reports relating to that
call.
(b) Upon proper request and payment of a reasonable fee set by
the center director to cover the cost of production or
reproduction, a person or entity may obtain, without court order or
a valid subpoena, a transcription or, at the director's discretion,
a duplicate audio recording of a call for emergency service
reporting alleged criminal conduct. The answering point shall
exclude from the transcription or duplicate audio recording any
information relating to the identity of the caller including, but
not limited to, the caller's name, address, telephone number or his
or her location in relation to the alleged offense or the alleged
perpetrator. If the transcript or duplicate audio recording of a
call is such that it cannot be successfully redacted so as to
protect the identity of the caller, the answering point may decline to provide the transcript or duplicate audio recording. In that
case, the person requesting the transcription or duplicate audio
recording may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction for a
court order releasing the transcript or duplicate audio recording.
(c) All calls for emergency service which are recorded
electronically, in writing or in any other form are to be
maintained for a period of at least ninety days or longer if
required by an order entered by a court of competent jurisdiction
or a valid subpoena.
(d) A county answering point may release information to
bonafide law-enforcement agencies, the prosecuting attorney of a
county or a United States attorney pursuant to a lawful criminal
investigation. Nothing in this article may be construed as
prohibiting a freedom of information request under chapter
twenty-nine-b of this code for information relating to the
operation of the center or to calls for emergency service which do
not involve reporting of alleged criminal conduct.
(e) Nothing in this article requires disclosure of any
information that is specifically exempt from disclosure by statute.
Except as otherwise provided in this article, nothing prohibits
disclosure of information that is not specifically exempted from
disclosure under a provision of this code.
(f) Every county answering point shall, within ninety days of
the effective date of this section, promulgate a written policy, available to the public, reflecting its compliance with the
provisions of this section.
(g) No answering point or center personnel shall be civilly
liable for any injury arising from disclosure of information
pursuant to the provisions of this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize an emergency
services center, at the director's discretion, to provide, upon
proper request and payment of a reasonable fee, duplicate audio
recordings of emergency service calls reporting criminal conduct.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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