FISCAL NOTE
Date Requested: January 30, 2018
Time Requested: 02:12 PM |
| Agency: |
State Police, WV |
|---|
| CBD Number: |
Version: |
Bill Number: |
Resolution Number: |
| 2199 |
Introduced |
HB4353 |
|
|---|
| CBD Subject: |
Crime |
|---|
|
FUND(S):
WV State Police Criminal History Account
Sources of Revenue:
Other Fund 6509
Legislation creates:
Creates New Revenue
Fiscal Note Summary
Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
Summarize in a clear and concise manner what impact this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
This piece of legislation would require those petitioning for the expungement of certain criminal convictions to pay a $100 fee to the clerk of the circuit court to be forwarded to the West Virginia State Police. This would generate approximately $191,000 per year.
Fiscal Note Detail
| Effect of Proposal |
Fiscal Year |
2018
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
2019
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation) |
| 1. Estmated Total Cost |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Personal Services |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Current Expenses |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Repairs and Alterations |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Assets |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2. Estimated Total Revenues |
0 |
191,000 |
191,000 |
Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):
Please explain increases and decreases in personal services, current expenses, repairs and alterations, assets, other costs and revenues, including assumptions and data sources and delineation between start-up and ongoing costs. Please also include a long-range schedule of costs and revenues if fiscal impact is expected to vary in future years.
This legislation will assist the West Virginia State Police with current costs associated with the expungement of records and hire additional office staff and/or pay overtime as needed.
See Memorandum for the process followed by the West Virginia State Police in processing expungements.
Memorandum
Please identify any areas of vagueness, technical defects, reasons a bill would not have a fiscal impact, and/or any special issues not captured elsewhere on this form.
Criminal Records Section (Criminal History):
For the year 2017, the Criminal Records section received 1914 expungements to be processed. Every expungement we receive requires our staff to verify if the order meets state code. Staff must make sure all information is included in the petition, if not, then it must be sent back to the court for the needed information. After we have verified the order, staff will research the individual in our Criminal History System to make sure they are in the system. The reason for that is to make sure we received prints from the law enforcement agency. If we have the information, then we will remove the charge and the Biometric staff will have to remove the prints from our AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System). Biometric section will then notify the FBI to have them remove the charge. If this was a WVSP arrest, then a notice will be sent out to the UCR/CI report section for the expungement. We also send notices to the Detachments, BCI, Lab, and Traffic Sections for them to also expunge any information concerning the charge in question. Each expungement could take several hours to fulfill. We have 60 days to meet the order and have it completed.
Legal Section:
All petitions for expungements must come to Legal. The legal section receives them by mail or they are forwarded from Criminal Records. The paralegal reviews each expungement and accesses their criminal history to check if their charge(s) can be expunged. If they can be expunged, the documents are marked SID on petition and forwarded back to Criminal Records. If we oppose, a request is made for the criminal investigations, the court documents and other information to prepare pleading or response to the court.
Legal also receives Orders for expungement, which are reviewed and sent to Criminal Records. These typically go to Criminal Records, but some courts will forward to counsel for West Virginia State Police.
There is only one paralegal for the entire agency needs and on any given week can be tasked with 5 to 20 expungements to review in addition to other duties.. It could take an hour or several hours a week to review these. The paralegal is only one in our department that researches the petitions unless the department attorney is needed for the review.
Forensic Laboratory:
The Forensic Laboratory receives the expungement lists from Criminal Records with names and case numbers. Each individual is searched in our LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System). If the name is in the system, we then confirm the agency, offense date and listed charges. Once confirmed, the case jacket is obtained from the appropriate section (Drugs, Biochemistry etc.) and the individual's name is removed from everything in the hard copy file (up to several hundred pages). The file jacket is dated and stamped expunged. The name is also removed from our LIMS System. This process can take anywhere for 30 min. up to 2 hours. One employee performs this duty along with assistance from other lab personnel.
Based on the 2017 expungement numbers of 1914, this legislation would generate approximately $191,000 to assist with the costs associated with the expungement process involving 3 sections and a minimum of 4 employees.
Person submitting Fiscal Note: Connie E Gundy, Comptroller
Email Address: connie.e.gundy@wvsp.gov