THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

SENATE BILL

INTRODUCED BY KASUNIC, BREWSTER, COSTA, EICHELBERGER, ERICKSON, FONTANA, GREENLEAF, KITCHEN, RAFFERTY, SOLOBAY, TARTAGLIONE, WASHINGTON AND WAUGH, FEBRUARY 25, 2011

REFERRED TO JUDICIARY, FEBRUARY 25, 2011  

AN ACT

Amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania

Consolidated Statutes, further providing for fees for

background checks.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1.  Section 9121 of Title 18 of the Pennsylvania

Consolidated Statutes is amended to read:

§ 9121.  General regulations.

(a)  Dissemination to criminal justice agencies.--Criminal

history record information maintained by any criminal justice

agency shall be disseminated without charge to any criminal

justice agency or to any noncriminal justice agency that is

providing a service for which a criminal justice agency is

responsible.

(b)  Dissemination to noncriminal justice agencies and

individuals.--Criminal history record information shall be

disseminated by a State or local police department to any

individual or noncriminal justice agency only upon request.

Except as provided in subsection (b.1):

(1)  A fee may be charged by a State or local police

department for each request for criminal history record

information by an individual or noncriminal justice agency,

except that no fee shall be charged to an individual who

makes the request in order to apply to become a volunteer

firefighter as defined in section 2 of the act of June 11,

1968 (P.L.149, No.84), known as the Volunteer Firefighters'

Relief Association Act, or a volunteer with an affiliate of

Big Brothers of America or Big Sisters of America or with a

rape crisis center or domestic violence program.

(2)  Before a State or local police department

disseminates criminal history record information to an

individual or noncriminal justice agency, it shall extract

from the record all notations of arrests, indictments or

other information relating to the initiation of criminal

proceedings where:

(i)  three years have elapsed from the date of

arrest;

(ii)  no conviction has occurred; and

(iii)  no proceedings are pending seeking a

conviction.

(b.1)  Exception.--Subsection (b)(1) and (2) shall not apply

if the request is made by a county children and youth agency or

the Department of Public Welfare in the performance of duties

relating to children and youth under the act of June 24, 1937

(P.L.2017, No.396), known as the County Institution District

Law, section 2168 of the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323,

No.130), known as The County Code, the act of June 13, 1967

(P.L.31, No.21), known as the Public Welfare Code, 23 Pa.C.S.

Ch. 63 (relating to child protective services) or 42 Pa.C.S. Ch.

63 (relating to juvenile matters).

(c)  Data required to be kept.--Any criminal justice agency

which disseminates criminal history record information must

indicate to the recipient that the information disseminated is

only that information contained in its own file, the date of the

last entry, and that a summary of the Statewide criminal history

record information may be obtained from the central repository.

(d)  Extracting from the record.--When criminal history

record information is maintained by a criminal justice agency in

records containing investigative information, intelligence

information, treatment information or other nonpublic

information, the agency may extract and disseminate only the

criminal history record information if the dissemination is to

be made to a noncriminal justice agency or individual.

(e)  Dissemination procedures.--Criminal justice agencies may

establish reasonable procedures for the dissemination of

criminal history record information.

(f)  Notations on record.--Repositories must enter as a

permanent part of an individual's criminal history record

information file, a listing of all persons and agencies to whom

they have disseminated that particular criminal history record

information and the date and purpose for which the information

was disseminated. Such listing shall be maintained separate from

the record itself.

Section 2.  This act shall take effect immediately.