81R3527 SJM-D
By: Carona S.B. No. 369
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to information contained in an intelligence database used
to investigate and prosecute offenses committed by criminal street
gangs.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Article 61.02, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (d) to
read as follows:
(c) Criminal information collected under this chapter
relating to a criminal street gang must:
(1) be relevant to the identification of an
organization that is reasonably suspected of involvement in
criminal activity; and
(2) consist of:
(A) a judgment under any law that includes, as a
finding or as an element of a criminal offense, participation in a
criminal street gang;
(B) a self-admission by the individual of
criminal street gang membership that is made during a judicial
proceeding; or
(C) any two of the following:
(i) a self-admission by the individual of
criminal street gang membership that is not made during a judicial
proceeding, including the use of the Internet to post photographs
or other documentation identifying the individual as a member of a
criminal street gang;
(ii) an identification of the individual as
a criminal street gang member by a reliable informant or other
individual;
(iii) a corroborated identification of the
individual as a criminal street gang member by an informant or other
individual of unknown reliability;
(iv) evidence that the individual frequents
a documented area of a criminal street gang and associates with
known criminal street gang members;
(v) evidence that the individual uses, in
more than an incidental manner, criminal street gang dress, hand
signals, tattoos, or symbols, including expressions of letters,
numbers, words, or marks, regardless of the format or medium in
which the symbols are displayed, that are associated with a
criminal street gang that operates in an area frequented by the
individual and described by Subparagraph (iv); [or]
(vi) evidence that the individual has been
arrested or taken into custody with known criminal street gang
members for an offense or conduct consistent with criminal street
gang activity;
(vii) evidence that the individual
possesses one or more documents of a criminal street gang,
including documents maintained in an electronic format;
(viii) evidence that the individual has
visited a known criminal street gang member, other than a family
member of the individual, while the gang member is confined in or
committed to a penal institution; or
(ix) evidence of the individual's use of
technology, including the Internet, to:
(a) recruit new criminal street gang
members; or
(b) provide a forum for
communications between known criminal street gang members.
(d) In this article:
(1) "Electronic format" means a medium or format of
digital data that enables storage of the data on a cell phone,
pager, computer or data processor, or other electronic device.
(2) "Family member" means a person related to another
person within the first degree by consanguinity or affinity, as
described by Subchapter B, Chapter 573, Government Code, except
that the term does not include a person who is considered to be
related to another person by affinity only as described by Section
573.024(b), Government Code.
(3) "Penal institution" means a confinement facility
operated by or under a contract with any division of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice, a confinement facility operated by
or under contract with the Texas Youth Commission, or a juvenile
secure pre-adjudication or post-adjudication facility operated by
or under a local juvenile probation department, or a county jail.
SECTION 2. Article 61.06(b), Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended to read as follows:
(b) Subject to Subsection (c), information collected under
this chapter relating to a criminal street gang must be removed from
an intelligence database established under Article 61.02 and the
intelligence database maintained by the department under Article
61.03 after five [three] years if:
(1) the information relates to the investigation or
prosecution of criminal activity engaged in by an individual other
than a child; and
(2) the individual who is the subject of the
information has not been arrested for criminal activity reported to
the department under Chapter 60.
SECTION 3. Article 61.06(c), Code of Criminal Procedure, as
amended by Chapters 258 (S.B. 111), 263 (S.B. 103), and 1308 (S.B.
1909), Acts of the 80th Legislature, Regular Session, 2007, is
reenacted and amended to read as follows:
(c) In determining whether information is required to be
removed from an intelligence database under Subsection (b), the
five-year [three-year] period does not include any period during
which the individual who is the subject of the information is:
(1) confined in a correctional facility operated by or
under contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice;
(2) committed to a secure correctional facility
operated by or under contract with the Texas Youth Commission, as
defined by Section 51.02, Family Code; or
(3) confined in a county jail or confined in or
committed to a facility operated by a juvenile board in lieu of
being confined in a correctional facility operated by or under
contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or being
committed to a secure correctional facility operated by or under
contract with the Texas Youth Commission.
SECTION 4. The change in law made by this Act in amending
Article 61.06, Code of Criminal Procedure, applies to any
applicable information maintained in an intelligence database
under Chapter 61 of that code on or after the effective date of this
Act.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.