State Crime Information Director Maury Mitchell presents information to members of the Alabama Justice Information Commission at a meeting on Oct. 31, 2024 meeting. The group, comprised of law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies, will be more strict with enforcing rules related to access to its criminal justice database. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama state commission that regulates access to a criminal information database plans to impose greater oversight over law enforcement agencies who failed audits of personal privacy protections.
The Justice Information Commission plans to send those agencies a show cause letter requiring those agencies to take steps protecting people’s personal information when retrieving data from the Law Enforcement Tactical System (LETS) or attend a commission meeting to explain their situations.
Otherwise, the Commission will terminate their access to the criminal information database.
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“We are getting written up because of what agencies are not doing,” said Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham, the chair of the commission, in an interview Thursday. “So, what we are saying now, the agencies need to start doing it or we are going to bring them before the Commission, and they will have to explain why.”
The more stringent rules were approved by members of the Justice Information Commission, comprised of law enforcement agencies, judicial associations and prosecutors.
In the past, the commission notified agencies of shortcomings in compliance, but did little else in the way of sanctions.
Maury Mitchell, the state’s crime information director, told commission members during the October meeting that the U.S. Department of Justice has grown stricter on rules requiring law enforcement to adhere to policies and procedures aimed at protecting criminal information.
“In theory, this has been one of the most important functions of this body, but we have not really pursued it in 15 years, 20 years, very well anyway,” Mitchell said.
That has forced the Justice Information Commission, who retains authority over the criminal database, to become even more vigilant with its audits and imposing sanctions when local law enforcement does not address their issues found during the examination.
The database includes information that law enforcement would conduct a search as part of their regular duties, such as when stopping a vehicle.
“This Commission passed rules for license plate recognition use in the state,” Mitchell said. “There are rules that any policing agency, or any criminal justice agency, that deals with license plate recognition, can only use it in a certain way. It may or may not be used properly locally, but we are going to start auditing on that use.”
Mitchell said the department’s compliance team will be performing more vigorous and more frequent audits of local law enforcement agencies throughout Alabama with access to its information system.
The compliance team separates the state into different districts based on their location. A compliance officer on the team responsible for overseeing a specific region will ensure that each agency will be audited at least once every three years, if not more frequently.
“We are going to start auditing very closely to make sure agencies have an access agreement that is up to date,” Mitchell told members of the Commission. “We have found where the police chief retired three chiefs ago. They even moved to another building, and nobody even told us.”
Agencies will sign a new agreement with the Justice Information Commission when officials appoint a new police chief, and the agreement will ensure that local law enforcement designate someone in charge who will oversee compliance when accessing information in the system as well as a person responsible for the billing because the Commission charges for access.
The officer, after the inspection, will publish a report for the agency that identifies the issues related to compliance with the information system that the agency must then address.
If the agency does not respond to an audit or continues to be out of compliance for several months without having communicated with the compliance team, that will trigger a letter from the commission requiring them to address any shortcomings or appear before the body to explain itself.
The commission already knows of some with problems pertaining to the audit that need to be addressed.
“The majority of the audits that seem to have issues are more policy based,” said Mike Trotter, Criminal Justice Information Service operations chief. “They do not have policies in place that the FBI requires them to have in place.”
According to Mitchell’s PowerPoint presentation, there were at least five agencies listed, including the Bullock County Sheriff’s Office.
“At that time, we were changing things over, and our people had not got themselves certified,” said Raymond “Buck” Rodgers in an interview Tuesday, sheriff for Bullock County. “We are certified now.”
The most egregious violations may be referred to as possible criminal proceedings to either the district attorney’s office or the state Attorney General’s Office, but those found to have problems with the audit did not rise to that level.
If problems persist, the commission may vote to terminate an agency’s access.
“That means that you will have to have another agency to be able to get you into the system,” Cunningham said. “That agency will be doing all the checks until you get your act together and get your policies and procedures up.”
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