H. B. 2246
(By Delegate Border)
[Introduced January 16, 2007; referred to the
Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §15-2-24 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to fees charged by the Criminal
Identification Bureau of the West Virginia State Police for
providing certain information to volunteer fire departments.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §15-2-24 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, 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, 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 State Police headquarters a
Criminal Identification Bureau, for the purpose of receiving and filing fingerprints, photographs, records and other information
pertaining to the investigation of crime and the apprehension of
criminals, as hereinafter provided in this article. The
superintendent shall appoint or designate a supervisor to be in
charge of the Criminal Identification Bureau and such the
supervisor shall be is responsible to the superintendent for the
affairs of the bureau. Members of the department State Police
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, 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, 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)(1) The Criminal Identification Bureau may furnish, with
the approval of the superintendent, fingerprints, 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 governs and controls. All requests under the provisions
of this subsection (d) for such fingerprints, photographs, records
or other information must be accompanied by a written authorization
signed and acknowledged by the person whose fingerprints,
photographs, records or other information is to be released.
(2) The Criminal Identification Bureau shall furnish
fingerprints, photographs, records or other information requested
under this subsection by volunteer fire departments to the
departments at no charge.
(e) The Criminal Identification Bureau may furnish
fingerprints, 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 them in duplicate to the Criminal Identification Bureau
department of public safety. Such of the State Police. 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 in this article 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 and 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 them in duplicate to
the Criminal Identification Bureau of the department of public
safety State Police on forms approved by the superintendent. of
said department All such the officials as herein named in this
section may, when possible to do so, furnish to the Criminal
Identification Bureau, photographs of such the persons so
fingerprinted. 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 additional information as the
bureau may require for such purpose, and all such the 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 and
information required by subsections (f) and (g) of this section.
Any person who has been fingerprinted 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 State Police have such the fingerprints 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
is the duty of the bureau to adopt and promulgate rules and regulations prescribing the form, general content, time and manner
of submission of such the 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 is 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 the 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 in this section, 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 is
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 is misfeasance in office and subject such subjects
the persons to removal from office. Any person who willfully
removes, destroys or mutilates any of the fingerprints,
photographs, records or other information of the department of
public safety shall be State Police, is guilty of a misdemeanor,
and such person shall, and upon conviction thereof, shall 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 eliminate fees charged
by the Criminal Identification Bureau of the West Virginia State
Police for providing certain information to volunteer fire
departments.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.