PRINTER'S NO. 1382
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE BILL
No.
946
Session of
2019
INTRODUCED BY COSTA, FONTANA, MUTH, HUGHES, L. WILLIAMS,
SANTARSIERO, FARNESE, KEARNEY, TARTAGLIONE, SCHWANK, STREET,
DINNIMAN, SABATINA, BREWSTER, COLLETT AND HAYWOOD,
NOVEMBER 18, 2019
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY, NOVEMBER 18, 2019
AN ACT
Amending Title 44 (Law and Justice) of the Pennsylvania
Consolidated Statutes, establishing a hate group database;
and imposing powers and duties on the Attorney General.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Title 44 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
Statutes is amended by adding a chapter to read:
CHAPTER 6
HATE GROUP DATABASE
Sec.
601. Definitions.
602. Hate group database.
603. Intelligence information.
604. Hate group unit established.
605. Regulations.
§ 601. Definitions.
The following words and phrases when used in this chapter
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shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Appropriate agency." A department, board, commission or
agency of the Commonwealth, the Federal Government or another
state, as approved by the Attorney General of the Commonwealth
for access to the hate group database.
"Hate crime." A criminal offense against a person or
property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias
against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation,
ethnicity, gender identity or any other immutable
characteristic.
"Hate group." A group of individuals, as designated by the
Attorney General, who, based on the group's official statements
or principles, the statements of group leaders or group
activities, has beliefs, biases or practices that attack or
malign a class of people and who may commit or attempt to commit
a hate crime in this Commonwealth.
"Hate group database." The Statewide hate group database
established under section 602 (relating to hate group database).
"Intelligence information." Information concerning the
habits, practices, characteristics, possessions, associations
and affiliations of an individual or group of individuals
compiled in an effort to anticipate, prevent and monitor hate
group activity and investigate or prosecute hate crimes.
"Law enforcement agency." The Pennsylvania State Police and
a police department of a city, borough, incorporated town or
township in this Commonwealth. The term includes county district
attorneys' offices and the Office of Attorney General of the
Commonwealth, Federal law enforcement agencies and law
enforcement agencies of other states in accordance with rules
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and regulations promulgated by the Attorney General to implement
this chapter.
§ 602. Hate group database.
(a) Establishment.--The Attorney General, in consultation
with the Pennsylvania State Police, shall provide for the
establishment of a Statewide hate group database.
(b) Duties of Attorney General.--The Attorney General shall:
(1) Coordinate, designate and facilitate the use of the
hate group database established under subsection (a).
(2) Ensure that the hate group database is configured to
limit accessibility to law enforcement agencies and other
appropriate agencies.
(3) Utilize existing resources, networks or structures
inside or outside this Commonwealth to:
(i) Designate an individual or group of individuals
as a members of a hate group or affiliates or associates
of a hate group.
(ii) Evaluate and investigate actual and alleged
hate crimes and hate group activity, including
paramilitary activity or training, recruitment efforts
and reports of overt or covert hate group activities in
this Commonwealth.
(4) Adopt and establish rules and establish regulations
for entering hate groups and members, associates and
affiliates of hate groups and hate group activity into the
hate group database. Data on individuals may be entered based
on reasonable suspicion, reports of alleged activity or
actual criminal activity related to a hate crime.
(5) Annually compile a hate group report, which shall
include available data sources such as uniform crime reports,
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record management systems and entries into the hate group
database.
(6) Provide a secure link on the Attorney General's
publicly accessible Internet website for public reports of
hate group activity and initiate a public awareness campaign
to encourage individuals to report hate crimes or acts of
suspected hate group activity, including, but not limited to,
distribution of literature and other similar activities aimed
at promoting messages of hate and intolerance.
(7) Ensure that individuals entered into the hate group
database are 16 years of age or older.
(8) Adopt rules to govern access to the hate group
database by appropriate agencies.
(c) Compliance with Federal regulations.--The hate group
database shall comply with Federal regulations for state law
enforcement databases shared with other law enforcement
agencies, including auditing and access to data.
(d) Use of intelligence information.--The hate group
database shall:
(1) Contain intelligence information available to law
enforcement agencies, other Commonwealth agencies, including,
but limited to, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
and the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, and
Federal law enforcement agencies solely for tracking domestic
terrorists, hate groups, hate group members, affiliates and
associates and hate crime and hate group activities and
incidents in this Commonwealth.
(2) Provide an Internet-based multiagency,
multilocation, information-sharing website or application for
law enforcement agencies which operates as a network system.
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(e) Accessibility.--The hate group database shall be
accessible only to appropriate agency employees approved by the
Attorney General.
(f) Database use.--The hate group database shall be used for
intelligence information and investigative information and shall
not be used as evidence in any criminal, civil or administrative
proceeding. Law enforcement may use intelligence information
within the hate group database to obtain information external to
the hate group database to formulate reasonable suspicion
necessary to make a stop or arrest, except that the existence of
intelligence information relating to an individual maintained
within the hate group database shall not by itself justify a
stop or an arrest.
(g) Confidentiality.--The hate group database and the
intelligence information maintained in the hate group database
are exempt from public disclosure and shall not be a public
record subject to disclosure under the act of February 14, 2008
(P.L.6, No.3), known as the Right-to-Know Law.
§ 603. Intelligence information.
(a) Authority to collect and maintain intelligence
information.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
intelligence information collected on an individual or group of
individuals suspected or known to have engaged or attempted to
engage in hate group activity in this Commonwealth, or any
associate or affiliates of an individual or group of
individuals, may only be maintained in the hate group database
in accordance with subsection (b).
(b) Collection of intelligence information.--The following
apply:
(1) Intelligence information may only be placed in the
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hate group database if the following apply:
(i) a law enforcement agency has reasonable
suspicion of hate group activity;
(ii) the intelligence information is related to hate
group activity that would give rise to prosecution for a
Federal or State offense for which the penalty is
imprisonment for more than one year; or
(iii) the intelligence information is not collected
in violation of any law of this Commonwealth.
(2) Access to the intelligence information contained in
the hate group database shall be restricted to authorized
employees of a law enforcement agency and cannot be accessed
by any other person.
(3) Intelligence information related to hate group
activity may not be collected or maintained in the hate group
database if the information concerns participation in a
political, religious or social organization that is not
affiliated with a hate group or the organization or support
of a nonviolent demonstration, assembly, protest, rally or
similar form of public speech, unless there is a reasonable
suspicion that participation by a subject of intelligence
information is related to hate group activity.
(c) Dissemination of intelligence information.--The
following apply:
(1) Intelligence information may be maintained in the
hate group database and disseminated if:
(i) The information is reliable as determined by the
Attorney General, a district attorney or other law
enforcement officer.
(ii) The department, agency or individual requesting
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the information is a law enforcement agency that has
policies and procedures adopted by the Office of Attorney
General, in consultation with the Pennsylvania State
Police, which are consistent with this chapter and
include:
(A) Designation of a law enforcement officer or
officers by the head of the law enforcement agency or
a designee to request and receive intelligence
information maintained in the hate group database.
(B) Adoption of administrative, technical and
physical safeguards and rules, including audit
trails, to ensure against unauthorized access and
against intentional or unintentional damages.
(C) Labeling intelligence information to
indicate levels of sensitivity and levels of
confidence in the accuracy of the information.
(iii) The intelligence information is requested in
connection with the duties of the law enforcement agency
requesting the information and the request for
intelligence information is based upon a name,
fingerprints, modus operandi, genetic typing, voice print
or other identifying characteristic.
(2) If the Attorney General or a designated employee of
the Office of Attorney General or another disseminating law
enforcement agency is notified that intelligence information
which has been previously disseminated to another law
enforcement agency is materially misleading or otherwise
unreliable, the information shall be corrected and the
recipient agency notified of the change within 30 days of
notification.
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(3) The Attorney General shall establish retention
schedules for intelligence information. Intelligence
information shall be purged under the following conditions:
(i) The data is no longer relevant or necessary to
the goals and objectives of the Attorney General or other
law enforcement agency.
(ii) The data has become obsolete, making it
unreliable for present purposes, and the utility of
updating the data would be worthless.
(iii) The data cannot be utilized for strategic or
tactical intelligence studies.
(4) Intelligence information about specific individuals
in the hate group database shall be automatically expunged
if:
(i) no new or updated intelligence information
related to hate group activity or the commission of a
hate crime has been entered into the hate group database
within the previous five years;
(ii) there are no alleged or actual reports of hate
group activity against the individual subject to
expungement in any Federal, Commonwealth or state court;
(iii) the individual has not been convicted of a new
hate crime in Federal, Commonwealth or state court within
the last five years; and
(iv) if confined in a correctional institution, at
least five years have elapsed since the individual
completed a term of total confinement or sentence of
probation or parole.
(5) Each municipal police department accessing
intelligence information maintained in the hate group
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database shall file a copy of its procedures with the
Pennsylvania State Police for approval. The plan shall be
reviewed within 60 days of receipt.
(6) Each district attorney accessing intelligence
information maintained in the hate group database shall file
a copy of its procedures with the Office of Attorney General
for approval. The plan shall be reviewed within 60 days of
receipt.
(d) Secondary dissemination prohibited.--A law enforcement
agency that has intelligence information on hate group activity
or an alleged or actual hate crime, but is not the source of the
intelligence information shall not disseminate or disclose the
intelligence information to another law enforcement agency and
shall refer the requesting law enforcement agency to the law
enforcement agency that was the initial source of the
intelligence information. This prohibition shall not apply if
the law enforcement agency receiving the intelligence
information is investigating or prosecuting a hate crime or a
criminal incident related to hate group activity in conjunction
with the law enforcement agency possessing the intelligence
information. Law enforcement agencies receiving intelligence
information related to a hate crime or hate group activity
assume the same level of responsibility for the security of the
intelligence information as the law enforcement agency that was
the initial source of the information.
(e) Security requirements.--If intelligence information is
maintained in the hate group database, each law enforcement
agency collecting, requesting, storing or disseminating
intelligence information related to hate group activity shall
ensure the confidentiality and security of the information by:
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(1) Instituting procedures to reasonably protect any
repository from theft, fire, sabotage, flood, wind or other
natural or manmade disasters.
(2) Designating, supervising and training all personnel
of the law enforcement agency authorized to have access to
intelligence information maintained in the hate group
database.
(3) Ensuring that:
(i) if information technology is employed, the
equipment, systems, software and networks used for
maintaining and disseminating intelligence information
are dedicated solely to purposes related to hate crimes
and hate group activities; or
(ii) if information technology is not employed, a
law enforcement agency authorized to have access to
intelligence information is accorded equal management
participation in computer operations used to maintain and
disseminate the intelligence information.
§ 604. Hate group unit established.
(a) Establishment.--Within 90 days of the effective date of
this section, the Attorney General shall establish a hate group
unit within the Office of Attorney General.
(b) Procedures.--The unit shall develop procedures to track
hate crimes and hate group activities in this Commonwealth and
may investigate and institute criminal proceedings of alleged
perpetrators of hate crimes.
(c) Criminal action.--The following apply:
(1) District attorneys of the several counties of this
Commonwealth shall have authority to investigate and
institute a criminal proceeding for an offense related to a
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hate crime or hate group activity deemed to be a hate crime.
(2) In addition to the authority conferred upon the
Attorney General under the act of October 15, 1980 (P.L.950,
No.164), known as the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, the
Attorney General shall have the authority to investigate and,
following consultation with the appropriate district
attorney, to institute criminal proceedings related to hate
crimes and hate groups.
(d) Standing.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
an individual charged with an offense the Attorney General deems
a hate crime shall not have standing to challenge the authority
of the Attorney General to investigate or prosecute the case,
and, if any challenge is made, the challenge shall be dismissed
and no relief shall be available in the courts of this
Commonwealth to the individual making the challenge.
§ 605. Regulations.
The Attorney General may adopt and establish rules and
regulations necessary to carry out the provisions of this
chapter.
Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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