HB 2226

Abstract

Criminal street gang reporting; notice and process for contesting entry of information into databases. Requires any agency that has determined that a person is a member of a criminal street gang to provide written notice, in English and Spanish, to the person, or, if the person is under 18 years of age, to his parent or guardian, of such determination and to describe in such notice the process for contesting the determination prior to entering the person's information into the Organized Criminal Gang File of the Virginia Criminal Information Network (VCIN) established and maintained by the Department of State Police (the Department) or the Violent Criminal Gang File of the National Crime Information Center maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (databases) or into any other systems that contain gang information or affiliation. The bill establishes a process that allows a person to contest the determination that he is a member of a criminal street gang, request information about whether his information has been entered into the databases or other systems, request removal of his information from the databases or other systems, and petition a general district court for review of an agency's decision to enter his information into the databases or other systems. The bill requires the Department to automatically remove the information from the databases or other systems of any person who has not been convicted of any criminal offenses in furtherance of or intended to benefit the criminal street gang within five years of the entry of his information in the databases or other systems and to provide written notification, in English and Spanish, of the removal to such person. The bill also requires that on or before July 1, 2022, and annually thereafter, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Juvenile Justice, and any state or local law-enforcement agency, regional jail, or regional multijurisdictional law-enforcement task force that has submitted information to the shared gang databases within the preceding five years shall submit a report to the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) with certain information regarding its use of the databases or other systems. The bill requires that on or before November 1, 2022, and annually thereafter, the DCJS publish the total number of people included in the Organized Criminal Gang File of VCIN and the information submitted by each such agency on the DCJS website.