NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A3455
SPONSOR: Aubry (MS) TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the executive law, in relation to
criminal history record searches and open warrants
PURPOSE:
This bill will create a procedure to remove inaccurate information from
an individual's permanent criminal record as maintained by the Division
Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) as it relates to warrants issued as
part of a criminal proceeding.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill adds a new section 845-c of the executive law
creating a process whereby DCJS will exclude a warrant that has not been
recalled from a person's criminal history records where there has been a
new court proceeding reported on the case but no warrant has been
recalled. This section will not apply to criminal justice history
records available to state agencies with access to the DCJS data base
under section 837(6) of the Executive Law or to law enforcement agen-
cies, but will affect criminal history background checks for civil
purposes.
Section 2 provides an effective date.
EXISTING LAW:
Under Subsection six of Executive Law § 837, the Division of Criminal
Justice Services (DCJS) is required to establish a repository to main-
tain a record of all arrests and prosecutions in New York State, creat-
ing an individual's rap sheet. The registry's data includes a record of
all warrants issued as part of a criminal proceeding. Once these
.warrants are vacated by the court, this information should then be sent
to DCJS and recorded in the individual's rap sheet.
JUSTIFICATION:
Due to failures in communication among the various criminal justice
agencies, the process outlined in the Executive Law is not always
followed, resulting in many individuals having rap sheets that list
warrants as active that have actually been recalled. These mistakes can
cause an individual to be denied employment, housing or public benefits
for which they are eligible.
Currently, in order to correct warrant-related mistakes of this sort, an
individual must return to the court where his or her case was heard and
ask the clerk of the court to forward information regarding the vacated
warrant to DCJS so that this information may be correctly reflected on
the individual's criminal record. An individual must follow this process
even when it is clear from the criminal record that further proceedings
occurred and that the warrant in question must have been previously
cleared.
This process becomes more complex, or even impossible, where the phantom
warrant involves an old case. Under the Records Retention and Disposi-
tion Schedule issued by the Office of Court Administration (OCA), courts
are ordered to destroy records of all returned warrants within five
years of the date of return or recall. Court case files, which may also
contain records concerning warrants, are also scheduled to be destroyed
after a period of time. This period can be as short a six years where
the case was terminated in favor of the defendant or resulted in a
violation disposition. Even records of cases that ended in a felony
conviction are only retained for 25 years before they are destroyed. As
a result, once the courts no longer have any record of these warrants,
these persons have no opportunity to have this inaccurate information
removed from their record.
The proposed amendment provides a simple mechanism to have incorrect,
outdated warrant information removed from criminal history records
released for civil background checks. It will not affect the data seen
by qualified state agencies, including the courts, or by law enforce-
ment.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A10858A referred to codes in 2007 and 2008.
A.3665-A was referred to codes in 2009 and 2010.
A.6473 was referred to codes in 2011 and 2012.
A.2896-8 was ordered to third reading rules cal. 504 in 2013 and
advanced to third reading cal. 497 in 2014.
A.3998 was referred to codes in 2015 and 2016.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This shall take effect January 1, 2019.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3455
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 27, 2017
___________
Introduced by M. of A. AUBRY, WEPRIN -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A.
PERRY -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to criminal history
record searches and open warrants
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 845-c
2 to read as follows:
3 § 845-c. Criminal history record searches; open warrants. 1. When a
4 criminal record maintained by the division, pursuant to subdivision six
5 of section eight hundred thirty-seven of this article, contains a
6 warrant that has not been recalled and the division has subsequently
7 received a report of a new court proceeding on the case that contains
8 the warrant but no report that the warrant has been recalled, all refer-
9 ences to such a warrant contained in the criminal history record shall
10 be excluded from such report.
11 2. The provisions of subdivision one of this section shall not apply
12 to criminal history record information (a) provided by the division to
13 qualified agencies pursuant to subdivision six of section eight hundred
14 thirty-seven of this article or to federal or state law enforcement
15 agencies for criminal justice purposes; (b) prepared solely for a bona
16 fide research purpose; or (c) prepared for the internal recordkeeping or
17 case management purposes of the division.
18 § 2. This act shall take effect January 1, 2019.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07508-01-7
