State Agency - NASACT



TOPIC: Access to Criminal Justice InformationOFFICE: AuditorSTATE: MIDATE: 09/03/2014QUESTION / ISSUE: The Michigan Office of the Auditor General is interested in learning the level of access other state auditor offices have to criminal justice information (CJI). Administrators of CJI in Michigan provide us access to certain data based on their interpretation of the U.S. Dept. of Justice's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy. Access to a greater variety of CJI would greatly enhance our data matches for performance audits and tests of compliance.We would like to know if your office accesses CJI, the type or level of access you have, and under what authority you have that access. Knowing what our colleagues in other states are doing will help us determine how we pursue expanding our access to CJI.StateCommentsGeorgiaThe Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts has authority to examine criminal justice and other agency records based upon the following Georgia statues. 50-6-7. State officials to produce books, records, and other papers to the state auditor for examination.All officers, agents, employees, departments, institutions, commissions, authorities, and bureaus of the state shall produce and turn over to the state auditor or his or her assistants for examination and audit, whenever demanded by the state auditor, all of their books, records, accounts, vouchers, warrants, bills, and other papers dealing with or reflecting upon the financial transactions and management of such department, institution, agency, commission, authority, bureau, or office, including any and all cash on hand, but not including cash in banks, the amount of cash in banks to be ascertained by certificate furnished to the state auditor by the bank. ?50-6-29. Power to compel production of evidence.For the purpose of more completely discharging the duties resting upon him or her and to discover the truth and to make his or her reports truthful in all matters handled by him or her, the state auditor is empowered to conduct hearings, to summon witnesses, to administer oaths, to take the testimony of such witnesses, and to compel the production, inspection, and copying of documentary evidence, including without limitation evidence in electronic form and documentary evidence that is confidential or not available to the general public, at such time and place as he or she may designate for the purpose of investigating and determining the conduct and record of the employees and officials of any department of the state government. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the state auditor shall have access to inspect, compel production of, and copy confidential information in any form unless the law making such information confidential expressly refers to this Code section and qualifies or supersedes it in that particular instance. When the audit or special examination of the state auditor is concluded, the Department of Audits and Accounts shall redact, destroy, or return to the custodial agency all confidential information except that information which the state auditor determines is necessary to retain for audit purposes or to disclose for other public purposes. For audit purposes, the state auditor may retain such confidential information in working papers as is minimally necessary to support findings and to comply with generally accepted governmental auditing standards. The state auditor may also disclose confidential information to other officers independently entitled to its receipt, such as for law enforcement purposes. Except as stated above in this Code section, confidential information in the hands of the state auditor shall have the same confidential status as it does in the hands of the custodial entity, and the state auditor shall protect its confidentiality with at least the care and procedures by?which it is protected by the custodial agency or substantially equivalent care and procedures.NebraskaFor criminal justice information, Nebraska has a “JUSTICE” court case database that is maintained through the supreme court. The case search system provides access to criminal, civil, traffic, juvenile, and probate cases filed in all 93 of Nebraska's county and district courts. JUSTICE can provides all of the public information on cases, as entered by the court. This information includes: Case detail, such as the date and outcome of the trial, what the case was about, and who the judge was.Party listing, including the plaintiff and defendant, and often times their associated attorneys as well.Court cost Information, including all fees associated with the case.Payments by and to the court.Registrar of actions, so you can follow everything that's been done with the case up to, during, and after the case, should it have been recorded.All APA audit staff in our office has Direct Inquiry Only Access to JUSTICE at all times for all public cases. To get access to Sealed Records, Sealed Juvenile, Records, etc.,?the judge of the specific court grants the specific auditors conducting each audit access to those files for a limited time period.To date, we have not been denied access to any financial or court case data.Our access is based on State Statute:?84-305. Public entity; access to records; nonpublic information shall not be made public.The Auditor of Public Accounts shall have access to all records of any public entity, in whatever form or mode the records may be, unless the auditor's access to the records is specifically prohibited or limited by federal or state law. No provisions of state law shall be construed to change the nonpublic nature of the data obtained as a result of the access. When an audit or investigative finding emanates from nonpublic data which is nonpublic pursuant to federal or state law, all the nonpublic information shall not be made public.WashingtonWashington’s SAO’s authority is extremely broad; we can access all criminal records data.? However, we don’t actually obtain this under the SAO authority, we obtain it under a “research agreement,” pursuant to federal law.? I’ve included a copy of our most recent research agreement, as I think this would be the most helpful.\sBelow is also a link to SAO’s statutory authority: ................
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