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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Taylor
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
2/9/07
2/15/07 HB 508/aHJC
SHORT TITLE Create Uniform Crime Reporting System
SB
ANALYST Peery-Galon
ESTIMATED ADDITIONAL OPERATING BUDGET IMPACT (dollars in thousands)
FY07
FY08
FY09 3 Year
Total Cost
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
Total
$.1
$.1
$.1 Recurring General
Fund
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
New Mexico Municipal League (NMML)
New Mexico Sentencing Commission (NMSC)
Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)
No Responses Received From
Department of Public Safety (DPS)
New Mexico Association of Counties (NMAC)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of HJC Amendment
The House Judiciary Committee amendment to House Bill 508 amends language to require the
Department of Public Safety in conjunction with the New Mexico Sentencing Commission to
publish a report on crime in New Mexico and submit it to the governor and Legislature. The
amendment also adds language requiring every law enforcement agency in the state to use the
state uniform statutory charge codes for the automated fingerprint identification system and use
uniform crime incident reporting as provided by the Department of Public Safety for all incidents
and arrests.
Synopsis of Original Bill
House Bill 508 requires the Department of Public Safety to develop, operate and maintain a
Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system, and be the central repository for the collection,
storage, retrieval and analysis of crime incident and arrest reports generated by all law
pg_0002
House Bill 508/aHJC – Page
2
enforcement agencies in the state. The Department of Public Safety is required to:
•
Compile statistical data and forward data as required to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation or the appropriate Department of Justice agency;
•
Provide forms, standards and procedures and related training to state and local law
enforcement agencies as necessary;
•
Annually publish and submit to the Legislature a report on the nature and extent of crime
and New Mexico;
•
Maintain the privacy and security of information in accordance with state and federal
laws; and
•
Establish rules as necessary to implement the uniform crime reporting system.
The local law enforcement agencies are required to submit crime incident reports or any other
crime incident information to the Department of Public Safety. The Department of Public Safety
is to make the annual report and other statistical data generated available to the state and local
law enforcement agencies and the general public.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The proposed legislation does not have an appropriation to DPS to update or maintain this
database. The Law Enforcement Records Bureau at present is facing an estimated 10,470
unfunded labor hours and 59,000 unfunded labor hours for existing backlog. Also, DPS is
projecting a budget shortfall of $300 thousand in the information technology division for fiscal
year 2007.
The LFC has been told by DPS that the Law Enforcement Records Bureau has not had a budget
increase or staff increase authorized since 1987. In that time period the Law Enforcement
Records Bureau has received the following 10 unfunded mandates for the provision of services:
•
NM Missing Person’s Information Clearinghouse,
•
Sex Offender Registration Program,
•
Interstate Identification Index,
•
National Instant Criminal Background Checks,
•
National Crime Information Center Control Terminal Agency,
•
National Crime Information Center Interstate Identification Index and Quality Assurance,
•
Uniform Crime Reporting,
•
State Tracking Number Program,
•
National Incident Based Reporting System, and
•
Conceal Carry Weapons Background Checks.
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
NMSC reports the commission found that only 99 law enforcement agencies reported arrest data
to the DPS in 2003. NMSC states this represents 68 percent of 145 law enforcement agencies in
the state. NMSC reports New Mexico is one of four states that does not have a program for
reporting UCR data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. NMSC reports the UCR program
collects offense information for murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery,
aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and 21 other crimes
including DWI offenses.
pg_0003
House Bill 508/aHJC – Page
3
AOC reports that most states have a UCR system and the majority of the systems have been in
place since the 1970s. AOC notes some state have moved from the UCR system to the federally
mandated National Incident-Based Reporting System.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
NM Municipal League states the proposed legislation imposes the additional responsibility of
creating and maintaining a database on the Department of Public Safety, and of submitting data
to the Department of Public Safety on local law enforcement agencies.
CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP
The proposed legislation has a relationship to Senate Bill 764.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
NMSC reports that in 2005 the commission conducted an analysis of arrest patterns in New
Mexico. The analyzed data was derived from arrests that were voluntarily reported to DPS by
New Mexico law enforcement agencies. NMSC determined that DWI arrests were under-
reported in the data by approximately 46 percent. In calendar year 2003, the New Mexico Motor
Vehicle Division (MVD) administratively recorded 20,325 DWI arrests the DPS data contained
information on 13,972 DWI arrests. NMSC state one reason this happened is that a number of
law enforcement agencies that administratively reported their arrests for DWI to MVD are not
included in the data set. This means they either did not report their arrest information to DPS
and/or not all arrest data for calendar 2003 had been received or data entered by DPS. NMSC
reports that DPS staff informed the commission that in 1995 approximately 52% of all arrests
were reported to DPS by New Mexico law enforcement agencies and that this has improved to
the point where DPS believes approximately 70% of all arrests are now being reported.
RPG/csd