Bill Text: NJ A4058 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Creates "New Jersey Criminal Justice Information Sharing Environment Coordinating Council."

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2017-06-22 - Received in the Senate, Referred to Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee [A4058 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2016-A4058-Amended.html

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[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 4058

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

217th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman  ANNETTE QUIJANO

District 20 (Union)

Assemblyman  TROY SINGLETON

District 7 (Burlington)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Creates "New Jersey Criminal Justice Information Sharing Environment Coordinating Council." 

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As reported by the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee on June 15, 2017, with amendments.

  

An Act creating the "New Jersey Criminal Justice Information Sharing Environment Coordinating Council" and supplementing Title 52 of the Revised Statutes. 

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    The Legislature finds and declares that: 

     a.     Many State, county, and municipal criminal justice agencies currently operate automated information systems designed to meet agency-specific operational needs.

     b.    Some State, county, and municipal criminal justice agencies already share considerable information with one another through specialized electronic interfaces. 

     c.     Despite these successful information sharing initiatives, much criminal justice information in New Jersey currently is not readily and quickly available to meet operational needs and is processed by paper-based procedures. 

     d.    The processing of criminal justice information through paper-based procedures and document silos results in gaps, delays, errors, and redundancies in the entry, exchange, and processing of critical criminal justice information. 

     e.     The development of a Statewide criminal justice information sharing environment to ensure the timely and efficient sharing of criminal justice information would achieve many important objectives including:  enhancing public safety by providing criminal justice agencies and officials, including police officers, judges, and corrections officers, with faster access to important criminal justice information at critical points in the justice process; improving the efficiency of criminal justice agencies by reducing redundant data collection and entry and reducing or eliminating labor intensive, time-consuming, paper-based processes; and expanding the pool of statistical data available to State, county, and municipal officials for making and evaluating public policies. 

     f.     The establishment of a governance structure for this effort is critical to its success because: 

     (1)   criminal justice integration projects are difficult and need strong leadership to guide the process;

     (2)   integration is strategic and involves multiple organizations, multiple budget cycles, and multiple funding streams;

     (3)   integration involves independent agencies, elected officials, and separate branches of government, and these agencies include both criminal justice and non-criminal justice agencies that operate separate systems for collecting and maintaining data critical to carrying out diverse missions;

     (4)   integration involves significant investments of time and resources and should include stakeholder input;

     (5)   there are major implications with criminal justice integration, including those involving policy, operations, organization, legal, cultural, personal, managerial and technical;

     (6)   it ensures a place at the table for all relevant organizations and users and ensures equality in decision-making; and

     (7)   it provides a recognized vehicle to strategically plan for an integrated criminal justice information sharing environment. 

 

     2.    a.   There is hereby established within the Division of State Police in the Department of Law and Public Safety the New Jersey Criminal Justice Information Sharing Environment Coordinating Council which shall consist of the following 15 members:   

     (1)   the following members or their designees shall serve ex- officio: the Attorney General, the Superintendent of State Police, the Director of the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, the Chairperson of the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), the Commissioner of Corrections, the Chairman of the State Parole Board, the Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Commission, the Public Defender, the Chief Technology Officer of the Office of Information Technology, the Essex County Prosecutor, and the Administrative Director of the Courts; and

     (2)   a representative of each of the following organizations shall be appointed by the Governor:  the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey, the Sheriffs' Association of New Jersey, the New Jersey County Jail Wardens Association, and the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police. 

     b.    Any vacancy in the appointed membership of the council shall be filled by appointment in the same manner as the original appointment was made.

     c.     The council shall organize and hold its first meeting no later than 60 days after the appointment of a majority of its members and shall elect from its members a chair and a vice-chair. 

     d.    The council shall meet regularly, and at a minimum two times per year, at the call of the chair or when requested by a majority of its members, at those times and places within the State as the chair shall determine.  A majority of the council's membership shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business, including the adoption of any council recommendations. 

     e.     The members of the council shall serve without compensation, but shall be eligible for reimbursement for necessary and reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the council for its purposes.

     f.     The division shall, at the direction of the superintendent, provide legal, stenographic, technical, clerical, and other staff and resource assistance to the council. 

     g.    The council shall be entitled to call to its assistance and avail itself of the services of employees of any State, county, or municipal department, board, bureau, commission, or agency as it may require and as may be available; hold public hearings from time to time;  and seek the advice of experts, if  additional expertise is warranted. 

     h.    The division shall appoint a project director to serve as a liaison between the council, the advisory committee established in section 5 of this act, and stakeholders to effectuate the council's strategies and policies. 

 

     3. a. It shall be the duty of the New Jersey Criminal Justice Information Sharing Environment Coordinating Council to establish a governance structure to guide the design, development, and implementation of a Statewide, integrated criminal justice environment that would enable automated information sharing in a common format between federal, State, county, and municipal criminal justice agencies. The objectives of the council include, but are not limited to:

     (1) enabling the free flow of information in support of Statewide law enforcement, homeland security, and emergency management agencies to prevent, mitigate, respond to, investigate, and recover from all man-made and natural hazards;

     (2) providing secure access to information and actionable intelligence for participating agencies, across the public and private sectors, to better ensure the safety and security of New Jersey communities;

     (3) providing network, data, and application services in a trusted Internet-based federation, in conformance with national standards for information sharing and safeguarding; and

     (4) optimizing investment through the use and reuse of business and technological frameworks that have been effectively implemented in relevant federal and State initiatives.

     b. To achieve the objectives set forth in subsection a. of this section, the council shall:

     (1) innovatively and collaboratively work to integrate, to the greatest extent possible, the functionality and interoperability of criminal justice information systems in this State;

     (2) develop a governance structure for the ongoing planning and oversight of integrated criminal justice systems in this State;

     (3) enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and accuracy of criminal justice information;

     (4) establish and identify funding for a program management office responsible for daily operations, including stakeholder management, operations assessment, policy support, solution development and selection, training support, budget development and management, and other duties necessary to implement the provisions of this act;

     (a) the office shall be managed by the Police Institute at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice in coordination with the Division of State Police; ¹and¹

     (b) the Police Institute shall provide project support and assist the advisory committee ¹established in section 5 of this act¹ under the direction of its chair and the project director appointed pursuant to subsection h. of section 2 of this act;

     (5) establish information technology architecture and standards to enable the council to determine the most appropriate use of the operational systems of participating agencies; and

     (6) ¹[establish] make recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature concerning¹ an ongoing funding mechanism to support the initiative in a cost-efficient manner.

     c. The council shall recognize and preserve the separate mission; priorities; constitutional objectives; and governing laws, rules, and regulations of the participating agencies responsible for the administration of criminal justice in this State.

 

     4.    The New Jersey Criminal Justice Information Sharing Environment Coordinating Council shall establish policies, standards, and strategies for this State relating to all aspects of the design, development, funding, implementation, and operation of an integrated criminal justice information sharing environment by:

     a.     articulating a united vision and determining the scope and focus of information sharing projects;

     b.    defining and sanctioning objectives and timetables;

     c.     assessing risk and setting quality expectations;

     d.    garnering support from other stakeholders and decision-makers;

     e.     monitoring planning, implementation, and management;

     f.     defining integrated justice information operational requirements;

     g.    working collaboratively with the Chief Technology Officer to define system requirements necessary for individual agency information technology procurements to be compliant with the council's integration strategies;

     h.    resolving implementation obstacles;

     i.     reviewing system performance;

     j.     focusing on enhancements, improvements, and next phases;

     k.    providing leadership, reviewing business processes and policies, and analyzing technical environments and solutions;

     l.     coordinating the design, development, and implementation of a Statewide-integrated criminal justice information environment; and

     m.   providing quarterly progress reports to the Governor and the Legislature, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1). 

     5. a. A ¹[seven-member] six-member¹ advisory committee is established to consult with and provide recommendations to the New Jersey Criminal Justice Information Sharing Environment Coordinating Council. The advisory committee shall be composed of persons who demonstrate knowledge, skills, or abilities specific to integrated technology solutions and who are assigned within their respective organizations to oversee divisions, units, or tasks related to integrated technology. The Governor shall appoint to the advisory committee one person who meets these qualifications from each of the following agencies:

     (1) the Office of the Attorney General;

     (2) the Division of State Police in the Department of Law and Public Safety;

     (3) the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness;

     (4) the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI);

     (5) the Department of Corrections; and

     (6) the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

     b. The council shall designate one of the members of the advisory committee as chair of the committee. The advisory committee shall work at the direction of the council and shall meet at least two times per year, in addition to attending council meetings.

     c. The advisory committee shall be entitled to call to its assistance and avail itself of the services of employees of any State, county, or municipal department, board, bureau, commission, or agency as it may require and as may be available; hold public hearings from time to time; and seek the advice of experts, if additional expertise is warranted.

     d. The council shall review and consider all recommendations of the advisory committee in promulgating all strategies and policies as required in this act.

 

     6.    This act shall take effect on the first day of the seventh month next following enactment.