SB 249-REPORTING BAIL AND RELEASE INFORMATION  9:37:23 AM CHAIR RALPH SEEKINS announced SB 249 to be up for consideration. SENATOR HOLLIS FRENCH, bill sponsor, introduced the bill. SB 249 is designed to help continue to allow for effective integration of law enforcement knowledge across the state by putting into statute the ability to add bail conditions to the Alaska Public Safety Information Network (APSIN). He cited an incident where a swat team cordoned off an Anchorage neighborhood in 2005. A man went to his former spouse's home and held her hostage with a gun. Shots were fired between the man and the Anchorage Police Department (APD) but no one was hurt. The man went to jail but two weeks later was released on bail and returned to the same house to continue the dispute. A neighbor called the police but since the bail conditions were not listed on APSIN the police could not determine whether he was violating bail conditions and therefore were restricted from pursuing any further action against him. 9:40:24 AM Bail conditions frequently prohibit someone from doing something that is otherwise lawful and the bill would let officers know whether the person they are dealing with was or was not obeying their conditions of bail. 9:41:26 AM DOUG WOOLIVER, Administrative Attorney, Alaska Court System, said Senator French brought the issue to his attention. The court system has a group called the MAJIC group, which stands for multi-agency justice integration committee. It is chaired by a member of the court and includes people from the Department of Public Safety, (DPS) the APD, the chiefs of police, the Department of Corrections (DOC), district attorneys and others from the criminal justice system. They meet every other week and they are working on this particular problem. Currently there is no connection between the bail conditions and APSIM. The long- term goal is to incorporate the bail conditions information in the computer system, which is a fairly substantial change. 9:43:20 AM CHAIR SEEKINS asked whether there was a fiscal note attached to the bill. MR. WOOLIVER reported there was no fiscal note. The court system would estimate an indeterminate fiscal note. It is a long-range project and may cost money in the future but not immediately. 9:45:35 AM SENATOR FRENCH said that police often deal with people who are on bail restrictions and the bill would offer a valuable service for those situations with repeat offenders. CHAIR SEEKINS asked whether conditions of probation should be included in the computer for the officers as well. MR. WOOLIVER said he believes a clerk at the DOC types information for some offenses into the computer system by hand so that it is available for responding officers. The MAJIC group is addressing that issue and others such as letting officers know that the person they are pulling over has not paid their traffic tickets. CHAIR SEEKINS asked whether a person convicted of a DUI loses their license. MR. WOOLIVER explained the officer that arrests the person would take their driver's license and that information gets transferred to the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) computer system. CHAIR SEEKINS asked the timeframe for transferring that information. MR. WOOLIVER said it depends. There is an administrative revocation and a court adjudicated revocation. A court action against a license is still all paper records. Those are sent to the DMV and it takes them approximately two weeks to enter the data into their system. Everything is done by hand, which is why it takes so long. Finding an electronic solution is one of their top priorities, he said. 9:54:38 AM CHAIR SEEKINS noted the title of the bill seemed broad. He suggested the committee hold the bill and research whether they can add conditions of probation as well. SENATOR FRENCH agreed and offered to incorporate conditions of probation into the bill. 9:56:39 AM CHAIR SEEKINS held SB 249 in committee.