Gang Database
CHAPTER 61 - Compilation of Information Pertaining to Criminal Combinations and Criminal Street Gangs
Art. 61.01 - Definitions
In this chapter:
(1) "Combination" and "criminal street gang" have the meanings assigned by Section 71.01, Penal Code.
(2) "Child" has the meaning assigned by Section 51.02, Family Code.
(3) "Criminal information" means facts, material, photograph, or data reasonably related to the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.
(4) "Criminal activity" means conduct that is subject to prosecution.
(5) "Criminal justice agency" has the meaning assigned by Article 60.01 and also means a municipal or county agency, or school district law enforcement agency, that is engaged in the administration of criminal justice under a statute or executive order.
(6) "Administration of criminal justice" has the meaning assigned by Article 60.01.
(7) "Department" means the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas.
(8) "Intelligence database" means a collection or compilation of data organized for search and retrieval to evaluate, analyze, disseminate, or use intelligence information relating to a criminal combination or a criminal street gang for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting criminal offenses.
(9) "Law enforcement agency" does not include the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, a local juvenile probation department, or the Texas Youth Commission.
(10) "Juvenile justice agency" has the meaning assigned by Section 58.101, Family Code.
Art. 61.02 - Criminal Combination and Criminal Street Gang Intelligence Database; Submission Criteria
(a) Subject to Subsection (b), a criminal justice agency or a juvenile justice agency shall compile criminal information into an intelligence database for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting the criminal activities of criminal combinations or criminal street gangs.
(b) A law enforcement agency in a municipality with a population of 50,000 or more or in a county with a population of 100,000 or more shall compile and maintain in a local or regional intelligence database criminal information relating to a criminal street gang as provided by Subsection (a). The information must be compiled and maintained in accordance with the criminal intelligence systems operating policies established under 28 C.F.R. Section 23.1 et seq. and the submission criteria established under Subsection (c).
(b-1) Information described by this article may be compiled on paper, by computer, or in any other useful manner by a criminal justice agency, juvenile justice agency, or law enforcement agency.
(c) Criminal information collected under this chapter relating to a criminal street gang must:
(1) be relevant to the identification of an organization that is reasonably suspected of involvement in criminal activity; and
(2) consist of:
(A) a judgment under any law that includes, as a finding or as an element of a criminal offense, participation in a criminal street gang;
(B) a self-admission by the individual of criminal street gang membership that is made during a judicial proceeding; or
(C) except as provided by Subsection (d), any two of the following:
(i) a self-admission by the individual of criminal street gang membership that is not made during a judicial proceeding, including the use of the Internet or other electronic format or medium to post photographs or other documentation identifying the individual as a member of a criminal street gang;
(ii) an identification of the individual as a criminal street gang member by a reliable informant or other individual;
(iii) a corroborated identification of the individual as a criminal street gang member by an informant or other individual of unknown reliability;
(iv) evidence that the individual frequents a documented area of a criminal street gang and associates with known criminal street gang members;
(v) evidence that the individual uses, in more than an incidental manner, criminal street gang dress, hand signals, tattoos, or symbols, including expressions of letters, numbers, words, or marks, regardless of how or the means by which the symbols are displayed, that are associated with a criminal street gang that operates in an area frequented by the individual and described by Subparagraph (iv);
(vi) evidence that the individual has been arrested or taken into custody with known criminal street gang members for an offense or conduct consistent with criminal street gang activity;
(vii) evidence that the individual has visited a known criminal street gang member, other than a family member of the individual, while the gang member is confined in or committed to a penal institution; or
(viii) evidence of the individual's use of technology, including the Internet, to recruit new criminal street gang members.
(d) Evidence described by Subsections (c)(2)(C)(iv) and (vii) is not sufficient to create the eligibility of a person's information to be included in an intelligence database described by this chapter unless the evidence is combined with information described by another subparagraph of Subsection (c)(2)(C).
(e) In this article:
(1) "Family member" means a person related to another person within the third degree by consanguinity or affinity, as described by Subchapter B, Chapter 573, Government Code, except that the term does not include a person who is considered to be related to another person by affinity only as described by Section 573.024(b), Government Code.
(2) "Penal institution" means a confinement facility operated by or under a contract with any division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a confinement facility operated by or under contract with the Texas Youth Commission, or a juvenile secure pre-adjudication or post-adjudication facility operated by or under a local juvenile probation department, or a county jail.
Art. 61.03 - Release of Information
(a) A criminal justice agency may release on request information maintained under this chapter to:
(1) another criminal justice agency;
(2) a court; or
(3) a defendant in a criminal proceeding who is entitled to the discovery of the information under Chapter 39.
(b) A criminal justice agency or court may use information received under this article only for the administration of criminal justice. A defendant may use information received under this article only for a defense in a criminal proceeding.
(c) A local law enforcement agency described by Article 61.02(b) shall send to the department information compiled and maintained under this chapter.
(d) The department shall establish an intelligence database and shall maintain information received from an agency under Subsection (c) in the database in accordance with the policies established under 28 C.F.R. Section 23.1 et seq. and the submission criteria under Article 61.02(c).
(e) The department shall designate a code to distinguish criminal information contained in the intelligence database relating to a child from criminal information contained in the database relating to an adult offender.
Art. 61.04 - Criminal Information Relating to A Child
(a) Notwithstanding Chapter 58, Family Code, criminal information relating to a child associated with a combination or a criminal street gang may be compiled and released under this chapter regardless of the age of the child.
(b) A criminal justice agency or a juvenile justice agency may release information maintained under this chapter to an attorney representing a child who is a party to a proceeding under Title 3, Family Code, if the juvenile court determines the information:
(1) is material to the proceeding; and
(2) is not privileged under law.
(c) An attorney may use information received under this article only for a child's defense in a proceeding under Title 3, Family Code.
(d) The governing body of a county or municipality served by a law enforcement agency described by Article 61.02(b) may adopt a policy to notify the parent or guardian of a child of the agency's observations relating to the child's association with a criminal street gang.