School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-2084
Sponsor: Sen. Leahy, Patrick J. [D-VT]
Introduced: 2007-09-21 in the Senate
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Civil actions and liability
Congress
Congressional investigations
Congressional reporting requirements
Crime prevention
Criminal justice information
Data banks
Department of Justice
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Equipment and supplies
Families
Family violence
Federal advisory bodies
Federal aid to Indians
Federal aid to education
Federal aid to law enforcement
Firearms
Firearms control
Fraud
Government Operations and Politics
Health
Higher education
Identification of criminals
Illegal aliens
Immigration
Indian law enforcement
Informers
Juvenile delinquency
Labor and Employment
Law
Law enforcement officers
Licenses
Medical records
Mental health
Mental illness
Minorities
Police
Right of privacy
School security
Science, Technology, Communications
Security measures
Students
Survivors' benefits
Terrorism
Violence

Summary:
action_date: 2007-09-21
text: 
School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act - Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and the federal criminal code to: (1) make grants to enhance the security of schools and institutions of higher education; (2) revise and expand reporting requirements for information included in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and for determining firearms eligibility; (3) expand firearms eligibility for active and retired law enforcement officers; (4) allow death and disability benefits for certain public safety officers; (5) provide for crime and delinquency prevention and intervention strategies; and (6) expand the prohibitions against conveying false information and hoaxes to law enforcement and emergency personnel.

action_date: 2007-09-21
text: 

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act of 2007 - 
Title I: School Safety Enhancements Act 
- School Safety Enhancements Act - 
Subtitle A: Elementary and Secondary Education Safety Enhancements 
- (Sec. 111) Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to: (1) allow the placement and use of surveillance equipment in schools under the matching grant program for school security; (2) allow the use of grant funds to establish hotlines or tiplines for reporting potentially dangerous students and situations and for making capital improvements to make school facilities more secure; (3) set the federal matching share of program costs at 50%; (4) establish an interagency task force to develop and promulgate a set of advisory school safety guidelines to be published in the Federal Register by June 1, 2008; and (5) require grant applicants to consult with senior school professionals and law enforcement officers in preparing grant applications. Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2009.

Subtitle B: Campus Public Safety Enhancement
 - (Sec. 121) Authorizes the Attorney General to make grants, through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, to establish and operate a National Center for Campus Public Safety. Directs the Attorney General, in establishing the Center, to consult with the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Education, and the Attorney General of each state. Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2009.

(Sec. 122) Authorizes the Attorney General to make grants, through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, to provide improved security at institutions of higher education. Requires the Attorney General to give a preference to institutions that have a demonstrated need for improved security and for financial assistance and that have evidenced the ability to make security improvements. Sets the federal share of program costs at 50%. Requires the Attorney General to make an annual report to Congress on school security grant program activities. Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2009.

Title II: NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007
 - NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 - 
Subtitle A: Transmittal of Records
 - (Sec. 211) Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to: (1) authorize the Attorney General to obtain electronic versions of information from federal agencies on persons disqualified from receiving firearms; (2) require federal agencies to provide such information to the Attorney General, not less frequently than quarterly; and (3) require federal agencies to update, correct, modify, or remove obsolete records and notify the Attorney General of such action to keep the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) up to date. Requires the Attorney General to submit annual reports to Congress on the compliance of federal agencies with such reporting requirements.

Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide the Attorney General, updated not less than quarterly, information for determining whether a person is disqualified under the federal criminal code from possessing or receiving a firearm for use in NICS background checks.

Requires the Attorney General to: (1) ensure that all NICS information received from federal agencies is kept accurate and confidential; (2) provide for the removal and destruction of obsolete and erroneous names and information from the NICS; and (3) work with states to encourage the development of computer systems for notifying the Attorney General when a court order has been issued or removed or a person has been adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to a mental institution. 

Prohibits federal agencies from providing a person's mental health or commitment information to the Attorney General if: (1) such information has been set aside or expunged or the person involved has been fully released or discharged from all mandatory treatment, supervision, or monitoring; (2) the person has been found to no longer suffer from a mental health condition or has been found to be rehabilitated; or (3) the person has not been found to be a danger to himself or others or to lack the mental capacity to manage his own affairs. 

(Sec. 212) Grants states a two-year waiver of the matching fund requirement (10%) for criminal justice identification grants if such states provide at least 90% of the information required to be transmitted to the NICS under this Act. Requires states to provide reasonable estimates of the number of records transmitted to the NICS for purposes of granting such waiver.

Requires states to make electronically available to the Attorney General records relating to persons: (1) disqualified from possessing or receiving a firearm; (2) convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence; and (3) adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to mental institutions. Requires states to update, correct, modify, or remove obsolete records in the NICS.

Requires the Attorney General to: (1) establish regulations and protocols to protect the privacy of information in the NICS; and (2) report annually to the Judiciary Committees of Congress on the progress of states in automating criminal records databases and making such data available to the Attorney General.

(Sec. 213) Requires the Attorney General to make grants to states and Indian tribal governments to establish or upgrade information and identification technologies for firearms eligibility determinations. Allows up to 5% of grant funding for Indian tribal governments, including tribal judicial systems. Specifies allowable uses of grant funds. Authorizes appropriations for FY2009-FY2013.

Prohibits the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from charging user fees for NICS background checks.

(Sec. 214) Requires the Attorney General to submit to the Judiciary Committees of Congress an annual report on the progress of states in automating databases of information for transmittal to the NICS. Authorizes appropriations.

Provides for discretionary and mandatory penalties for states that fail to provide information required by this Act. Allows a waiver of such penalties for states that provide substantial evidence of reasonable efforts to comply with requirements for providing information.

(Sec. 215) Requires states, as a condition of grant eligibility, to establish procedures to allow persons with disabilities relating to mental health status or commitment to obtain relief from such disabilities for purposes of firearms eligibility. Requires states to allow de novo review in state courts of denials of relief.

(Sec. 216) Requires all records obtained by the National Instant Criminal Background Check system relating to possession of firearms by illegal aliens to be made available to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Subtitle B: Focusing Federal Assistance on the Improvement of Relevant Records
 - (Sec. 221) Requires the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics to: (1) study and evaluate the operations of the NICS; and (2) report to Congress annually on state estimates of records transmitted to the NICS and on best practices of states for handling information to be transmitted to the NICS. Authorizes appropriations for FY2009-FY2011.

Subtitle C: Grants to State Court Systems for the Improvement in Automation and Transmittal of Disposition Records 
- (Sec. 231) Requires the Attorney General to make grants to states and Indian tribal governments for use by state and tribal court systems to improve the automation and transmittal of criminal history dispositions and records and mental health adjudications or commitments to federal and state record repositories and the NICS. Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2010. 

Subtitle D: GAO Audit
 - Requires the Comptroller General to audit and report to Congress on whether expenditures for criminal records improvement under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act were made in accordance with such Act.

Title III: Equity in Law Enforcement Act
 - Equity in Law Enforcement Act - Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to include within the definition of &quot;public safety officer&quot; certain law enforcement officers serving private institutions of higher education and rail carriers (thus qualifying such officers for line-of-duty death and disability benefits). Qualifies such officers for law enforcement armor vest grant programs and for state and local law enforcement assistance grants under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.

Title IV: Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2007
 - Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2007 - (Sec. 402) Amends the federal criminal code to: (1) include Amtrak and executive branch police officers in the authorization for active and retired law enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons; (2) reduce from 15 to 10 years the length of service requirement for retired law enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons; (3) eliminate the requirement that a retired law enforcement officer have a non-forfeitable right to retirement benefits to qualify for a concealed weapons permit; and (4) revise firearms training and identification requirements for retired law enforcement officers who carry concealed weapons.

(Sec. 403) Directs the Comptroller General to study and report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on the number of active and retired law enforcement officers carrying concealed firearms.

Title V: PRECAUTION Act
 - Prevention Resources for Eliminating Criminal Activity Using Tailored Interventions in Our Neighborhoods Act of 2007 or the PRECAUTION Act - (Sec. 504) Establishes the National Commission on Public Safety Through Crime Prevention. Directs the Commission to: (1) hold public hearings; (2) study and report to the President, Congress, and other federal and state officials on the effectiveness of crime and delinquency prevention and intervention strategies, organized around specified subcategories (i.e., family and community settings, law enforcement settings, and school settings); and (3) make recommendations to the Director of the National Institute of Justice for the dissemination of innovative crime prevention and intervention strategy grants.

(Sec. 405) Authorizes the Director of the National Institute of Justice to make grants to public and private entities for the implementation and evaluation of innovative crime or delinquency prevention or intervention strategies. Requires grant recipients to: (1) set aside specified grant funds for a rigorous study of the effectiveness of prevention or intervention strategies; and (2) cooperate with the Commission by providing full information on the progress of such strategies. Authorizes appropriations.

Title VI: Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007
 - Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007 - Amends the federal criminal code to: (1) expand the prohibition against conveying false information and hoaxes to include false information and hoaxes about any federal crime of terrorism; (2) increase maximum prison terms for hoaxes involving a member of the Armed Forces during war; (3) revise civil liability provisions to allow emergency personnel to seek reimbursement of expenses from the perpetrator of a hoax who receives notice that such personnel are taking emergency or investigative actions and fails to inform parties of the hoax; and (4) expand the prohibition against mailing threatening communications in the United States or to a foreign country to include threats against corporations and governmental entities (as well as individuals).


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-09-21
text: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 382.
action_date: 2007-09-21
text: Committee on the Judiciary. Original measure reported to Senate by Senator Leahy. With written report No. 110-183. Supplemental views filed.
action_date: 2007-09-21
text: Committee on the Judiciary. Original measure reported to Senate by Senator Leahy. With written report No. 110-183. Supplemental views filed.
action_date: 2007-09-21
text: Introduced in Senate