HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1628        FILED ON: 1/19/2017

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 953

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Byron Rushing

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to the collection, accuracy and public availability of arrest data.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1628        FILED ON: 1/19/2017

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 953

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninetieth General Court
(2017-2018)

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An Act relative to the collection, accuracy and public availability of arrest data.

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. Section 167A of chapter 6 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the phrase “chapter 66”, at line 108, the following:

(i)The department shall obtain data concerning arrests, consistent with the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program of the United States Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation, from

(A) the Massachusetts State Police;

(B) the Massachusetts bay transportation authority police force;

(C) each law enforcement authority, as defined by section 1 of chapter 22A of the General Laws;

(D) each law enforcement council, created by contract between or among cities and towns, pursuant to section 4 of chapter 40 of the General Laws; and

(E) each entity employing one or more special state police officers, as defined in section 63 of chapter 22C of the General Laws;

and shall transmit that data to the chief information officer at the Massachusetts Office of Information Technology.  Any law enforcement authority or other entity described in clauses (C), (D) and (E) that does not submit to the Criminal Justice Information System data consistent with NIBRS as of the effective date of this act shall be required to begin submitting the arrest data required under this act beginning on or before January 1, 2021.  The department shall obtain arrest data on a quarterly basis, and shall submit the data to the Office of Information Technology on a quarterly basis.  The department shall promulgate regulations concerning the format for the submission of arrest data; the categories and types of arrest data required to be submitted to the department, which shall include for each arrest (a) the name of the arresting authority, (b) the incident number, (c) the alleged offense, (d) the date and time of the arrest, (e) the location of the arrest, and (f) the race, gender and age of the arrestee; a description of categories of data which constitute personally identifiable information, including but not limited to names and dates of birth of individual arrestees, which data shall not be posted or made available to the public; and schedules for the submission, transmission, and publication of the data.

SECTION 2. Section 3 of chapter 7D of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “agencies”, in line 32, the following:

(xii) maintain a page on the commonwealth’s official website, open to the public through the Massachusetts open data portal, providing data, as transmitted by the department of criminal justice information services, concerning arrests, as reported by Massachusetts state, municipal and other law enforcement agencies as part of the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program of the United States Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation.