SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1132        FILED ON: 1/13/2009

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 792

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act to allow municipalities to conduct fingerprint based background checks of federal records for employment and licensing purposes..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1.  Chapter 6 of the General Laws, as so appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting at the end thereof the following new section:-

“Section 178B1/2. Municipalities in the Commonwealth may, by local ordinance, require applicants for licenses in specified occupations to submit a full set of fingerprints for the purpose of conducting a state and national criminal history records check pursuant to Sections 168 and 172 of Chapter 6 of the General Laws and 28 U.S.C. §534.  Fingerprint submissions hereunder are authorized to be submitted by the licensing authority to the State Police Identification Unit through the Criminal History Systems Board for a state criminal records check and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a national criminal records check.

Municipalities may by local ordinance establish the appropriate fee charged to applicants for administering such a fingerprinting system. For purposes pursuant to Section 2LLL of Chapter 29 of the General Laws, $30 of said fee shall be deposited into the Firearms Fingerprint Identity Verification Trust Fund; and the remainder of said fee may be retained by the licensing authority for costs associated with the administration of the system.”