Senate Bill No. 176
(By Senator Sprouse)
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[Introduced January 21, 1999; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-four, article two,
chapter fifteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the "DNA
Testing and Profiling Act"; and requiring that all persons
arrested for fingerprintable offenses submit a DNA sample
and be profiled relative to physical characteristics.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-four, article two, chapter fifteen of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. WEST VIRGINIA STATE POLICE.
§15-2-24. Criminal identification bureau; establishment;
supervision; purpose; fingerprints, DNA testing,
photographs, records and other information; reports by courts and prosecuting attorneys; offenses and
penalties.
(a) The superintendent of the department shall establish,
equip and maintain at the departmental headquarters a criminal
identification bureau, for the purpose of receiving and filing
fingerprints, DNA test results, photographs, records and other
information pertaining to the investigation of crime and the
apprehension of criminals, as hereinafter provided. The
superintendent shall appoint or designate a supervisor to be in
charge of the criminal identification bureau and such supervisor
shall be responsible to the superintendent for the affairs of the
bureau. Members of the department assigned to the criminal
identification bureau shall carry out their duties and
assignments in accordance with internal management rules and
regulations pertaining thereto promulgated by the superintendent.
(b) The criminal identification bureau shall cooperate with
identification bureaus of other states and of the United States
to develop and carry on a complete interstate, national and
international system of criminal identification.
(c) The criminal identification bureau may furnish
fingerprints, DNA test results,
photographs, records or other
information to authorized law-enforcement and governmental
agencies of the United States and its territories, of foreign
countries duly authorized to receive the same, of other states
within the United States and of the state of West Virginia upon
proper request stating that the fingerprints, DNA test results,
photographs, records or other information requested are necessary
in the interest of and will be used solely in the administration
of official duties and the criminal laws.
(d) The criminal identification bureau may furnish, with the
approval of the superintendent, fingerprints, DNA test results,
photographs, records or other information to any private or
public agency, person, firm, association, corporation or other
organization, other than a law-enforcement or governmental agency
as to which the provisions of subsection (c) of this section
shall govern and control, but all requests under the provisions
of this subsection (d) for such fingerprints, DNA test results,
photographs, records or other information must be accompanied by
a written authorization signed and acknowledged by the person whose fingerprints, DNA test results,
photographs, records or
other information is to be released.
(e) The criminal identification bureau may furnish
fingerprints, DNA test results,
photographs, records and other
information of persons arrested or sought to be arrested in this
state to the identification bureau of the United States
government and to other states for the purpose of aiding law
enforcement.
(f) Persons in charge of any penal or correctional
institution, including any city or county jail in this state,
shall take, or cause to be taken, the fingerprints and
description of all persons lawfully committed thereto or confined
therein and furnish the same in duplicate to the criminal
identification bureau, department of West Virginia state police.
public safety Such The fingerprints shall be taken on forms
approved by the superintendent of the department of public safety
state police. All such the officials as herein named may, when
possible to do so, furnish photographs to the criminal
identification bureau of such the persons so fingerprinted.
(g) Members of the department of public safety, state police and all other state law-enforcement officials, sheriffs, deputy
sheriffs, and each and every peace officer in this state, shall
take or cause to be taken the fingerprints, a deoxyribonucleic
acid (DNA) sample by any unobtrusive method which shall be
tested, and a description of all persons arrested or detained by
them, charged with any crime or offense in this state, in which
the penalty provided therefor is confinement in any penal or
correctional institution, or of any person who they have reason
to believe is a fugitive from justice or an habitual criminal,
and furnish the same in duplicate to the criminal identification
bureau of the department of public safety state police on forms
approved by the superintendent of said department. The results
of DNA tests performed hereunder shall be profiled by the
department according to DNA characteristics. All such the
officials as herein named may, when possible to do so, furnish to
the criminal identification bureau, photographs of such persons
so fingerprinted and DNA tested. For the purpose of obtaining
data for the preparation and submission to the governor and the
Legislature by the department of public safety state police of an
annual statistical report on crime conditions in the state, the clerk of any court of record, the magistrate of any magistrate
court and the mayor or clerk of any municipal court before which
a person appears on any criminal charge shall report to the
criminal identification bureau the sentence of the court or other
disposition of the charge and the prosecuting attorney of every
county shall report to the criminal identification bureau such
the additional information as the bureau may require for such
purpose, and all such reports shall be on forms prepared and
distributed by the department of public safety, state police,
shall be submitted monthly and shall cover the period of the
preceding month.
(h) All persons arrested or detained pursuant to the
requirements of this article shall give fingerprints, DNA samples
and information required by subsections (f) and (g) of this
section. Any person who has been fingerprinted, DNA tested
or
photographed in accordance with the provisions of this section,
who is acquitted of the charges upon which he or she was
arrested, and who has no previous criminal record, may, upon the
presentation of satisfactory proof to the department, have such
fingerprints, DNA sample and test results or photographs, or both, returned to them.
(i) All state, county and municipal law-enforcement agencies
shall submit to the bureau uniform crime reports setting forth
their activities in connection with law enforcement. It shall be
the duty of the bureau to adopt and promulgate rules and
regulations prescribing the form, general content, time and
manner of submission of such uniform crime reports. Willful or
repeated failure by any state, county or municipal law- enforcement official to submit the uniform crime reports required
by this article shall constitute neglect of duty in public
office. The bureau shall correlate the reports submitted to it
and shall compile and submit to the governor and the Legislature
semiannual reports based on such reports. A copy of such the
reports shall be furnished to all prosecuting attorneys and
law-enforcement agencies.
(j) Neglect or refusal of any person mentioned in this
section to make the report required herein, or to do or perform
any act on his or her part to be done or performed in connection
with the operation of this section, shall constitute a
misdemeanor and, such the
person shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars nor
more than two hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county
jail for a period of not more than sixty days, or both. Such The
neglect shall constitute misfeasance in office and subject such
persons to removal from office. Any person who willfully removes,
destroys or mutilates any of the fingerprints, DNA test results,
photographs, records or other information of the department of
public safety, state police, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor
and, such the
person shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished
by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars, or by
imprisonment in the county jail for a period of not more than six
months, or both.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require DNA testing and
profiling of all persons arrested for fingerprintable offenses.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.