CA DOJ Information Bulletin 18-10-CJIS — California Values Act Database Guidance (Oct 2018)
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About this document
Guidance issued October 1, 2018 by the California Department of Justice, California Justice Information Services Division, under Attorney General Xavier Becerra, addressed to all chiefs of police, sheriffs and executives of California law enforcement agencies.
The bulletin exists because Government Code section 7284.8(b), added by SB 54, required the Attorney General to publish by October 1, 2018 guidance, audit criteria and training recommendations aimed at ensuring that databases operated by state and local law enforcement agencies, including databases maintained for the agency by private vendors, are governed so as to limit the availability of information for immigration enforcement purposes.
It sets out six database governance recommendations, one training recommendation and two audit criteria. Two of the six are directly relevant to any agency signing a LexisNexis AVCC contribution addendum: recommendation 4 on vendor contracts, and recommendation 5 on victim and witness data and retention periods.
Key language
Recommendation 4, verbatim: "Any data sharing agreements, memorandums of understanding, and/or contracts between law enforcement agencies and vendors/service providers should be updated to reflect policies that prohibit the use of non-criminal history information for immigration enforcement purposes." Recommendation 5, verbatim: "Limit, wherever possible, the collection of personal information of victims and witnesses of crime(s). Further, consider adopting retention periods no longer than is necessary to fulfill the purpose justifying collection of the information." On scope, verbatim: "Non-criminal history information contained within databases accessed through CLETS, other DOJ criminal justice information systems, as well as LEAs' individual databases should not be used for the purpose of immigration enforcement."