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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR:	Tsosie		DATE TYPED:	02/06/02		HB
SHORT TITLE:		High Speed Pursuits Data				SB	417
					ANALYST:		Valdes

APPROPRIATION

Appropriation Contained		Estimated Additional Impact		Recurring or Non-Rec	Fund Affected
FY02	FY03	FY02	FY03
	$45.0		$16.0	Non-recurring	General Fund
			$182.0	Recurring	State Road Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Companion to Senate Bill 138

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

State Highway and Transportation Department

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 417 appropriates $45.0 from the general fund to the Traffic Safety program of the State Highway and Transportation Department (SHTD) to coordinate the development, collection, evaluation and reporting of data regarding high-speed pursuits by law enforcement agencies.

Significant Issues

According to the department, uniform collection of required data across the state would require significant additional resources. The appropriation in this bill is not sufficient to absorb the recurring and non-recurring costs of the proposed initiative. The Traffic Safety program may have to absorb the estimated additional costs if this legislation is enacted and existing programs may be adversely impacted.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The department estimates total non-recurring costs of $16.0 to implement this initiative. Additionally, recurring costs are estimated at $182.0. The general fund appropriation of $45.0 included in Senate Bill 417 would only cover a portion of the cost estimates prepared by SHTD. The remaining expense would have to be absorbed by the department.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

Initial development of this new data collection and reporting system would have a short-term impact on the existing administrative function of the Traffic Safety program.

COMPANIONSHIP

SB 138 enacts the Law Enforcement Safe Pursuit Act and requires:

· High-speed pursuit data collection

· Development, adoption and implementation of policy & procedures for:

1. Collection, evaluation, and reporting of this data

2. Training standards on high-speed pursuits (by the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy, the NMLEA board, and all law enforcement academies)

3. A high-speed pursuit policy by city, county, and state law enforcement agencies

4. Creation of a crime-aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer, a fourth degree felony.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

According to the department, at the current time, consolidated, statewide information on all high-speed pursuits and its involvement in crashes is not available to the Traffic Safety Bureau or the Transportation Statistics Bureau. To collect uniform data across the state would require SHTD to:

· Develop & implement data collection procedures

· Develop a standardized reporting form

· Train all law enforcement officers on procedures and use of the form

· Develop a data collection system and an internal infrastructure to support this system.

The department would require substantial additional resources to develop this data collection and reporting system.

MV/njw