GA Code § 35-3-33 (2021)
2021 Georgia Code|Title 35 - Law Enforcement Officers and Agencies|Chapter 3 - Georgia Bureau of Investigation|Article 2 - Georgia Crime Information Center|§ 35-3-33. Powers and Duties of Center Generally

  The center shall:   Obtain and file fingerprints, descriptions, photographs, and any other pertinent identifying data on persons who:   Have been or are hereafter arrested or taken into custody in this state:   For an offense which is a felony;   For an offense which is a misdemeanor or a violation of an ordinance involving burglary tools, commercial gambling, dealing in gambling devices, contributing to the delinquency of a child, dealing in stolen property, dangerous drugs, marijuana, narcotics, firearms, dangerous weapons, explosives, pandering, prostitution, sexual offenses where children are victims, or worthless checks;   For an offense charged as disorderly conduct but which relates to an act connected with one or more of the offenses under division (ii) of this subparagraph;   As a fugitive from justice; or   For any other offense designated by the Attorney General;     Are or become career criminals, well-known offenders, or habitual offenders;   Are currently or become confined to any prison, penitentiary, or other penal institution;   Are unidentified human corpses found in this state;   Are children who are charged with an offense that if committed by an adult would be a felony or are children whose cases are transferred from a juvenile court to another court for prosecution; or   Are individuals for whom fingerprint based criminal history checks are authorized by this state's or federal law for the purpose of determining suitability or fitness for employment, placement, registration, a permit, or a license for an agency or qualified entity which is participating in the federal program that allows an ongoing and continuing review of such individual's criminal history; provided, however, that such fingerprints shall be retained and maintained securely and separately from records relating to the identification of criminals, and provided, further, that the center shall not file or retain fingerprints submitted for the purpose of obtaining or renewing a weapons carry license, as such term is defined in Code Section 16-11-125.1;     Compare all fingerprint and other identifying data received with those already on file and, whether or not a criminal record is found for a person, at once inform the requesting agency or arresting officer of such facts as may be disseminated consistent with applicable security and privacy laws and regulations. A log shall be maintained of all disseminations made of each individual criminal history including at least the date and recipient of such information;   Provide a uniform crime reporting system for the periodic collection, analysis, and reporting of crimes reported to and otherwise processed by any and all law enforcement agencies within the state, as defined and provided for in this article;   Periodically conduct audits of crime reporting practices of criminal justice agencies to ensure compliance with the standards of national and state uniform crime reporting systems and to ensure reporting of criminal arrests, dispositions, and custodial information;   Develop, operate, and maintain an information system which will support the collection, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of all crime and offender data described in this article consistent with those principles of scope, security, and responsiveness prescribed by this article;   Cooperate with all criminal justice agencies within the state in providing those forms, procedures, standards, and related training assistance necessary for the uniform operation of the center;   Offer assistance and, when practicable, instruction to all criminal justice agencies in establishing efficient local records systems;   Compile statistics on the nature and extent of crime in the state and compile other data related to planning for and operating criminal justice agencies, provided that such statistics do not identify persons, and make available all such statistical information obtained to the Governor, the General Assembly, and any other governmental agencies whose primary responsibilities include the planning, development, or execution of crime reduction programs. Access to such information by the latter governmental agencies will be on an individual, written request basis wherein must be demonstrated a need to know, the intent of any analyses, dissemination of such analyses, and any security provisions deemed necessary by the center;   Periodically publish in print or electronically statistics, no less frequently than annually, that do not identify persons and report such information to the Governor, the General Assembly, state and local criminal justice agencies, and the general public. Such information shall accurately reflect the level and nature of crime in the state and the operations in general of the different types of agencies within the criminal justice system;   Make available, upon request, to all local and state criminal justice agencies, all federal criminal justice agencies, and criminal justice agencies in other states any information in the files of the center which will aid these agencies in the performance of their official duties, including but not limited to final disposition of offenses; sentencing information and conditions; orders modifying an earlier disposition; orders relating to probation, including modification, tolling, completion of active probation supervision, termination, revocation, or completion of orders entered pursuant to Article 3 of Chapter 8 of Title 42; and orders relating to parole, including modification, tolling, termination, and revocation. For this purpose the center shall operate on a 24 hour basis, seven days a week. Such information when authorized by the council may also be made available to any other agency of the state or political subdivision of the state and to any other federal agency upon assurance by the agency concerned that the information is to be used for official purposes only in the prevention or detection of crime or the apprehension of criminal offenders;   Cooperate with other agencies of the state, the crime information agencies of other states, and the Uniform Crime Reports and National Crime Information Center systems of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in developing and conducting an interstate, national, and international system of criminal identification, records, and statistics;   Provide the administrative mechanisms and procedures necessary to respond to those individuals who file requests to view their own records as provided for in this article and to cooperate in the correction of the central center records and those of contributing agencies when their accuracy has been successfully challenged either through the related contributing agencies or by court order issued on behalf of the individual;   Institute the necessary measures in the design, implementation, and continued operation of the criminal justice information system to ensure the privacy and security of the system. This will include establishing complete control over use and access of the system and restricting its integral resources and facilities to those either possessed or procured and controlled by criminal justice agencies as defined in this article. Such security measures must meet standards to be set by the council as well as those set by the nationally operated systems for interstate sharing of information;   Provide availability, by means of data processing, to files listing motor vehicle drivers' license numbers, motor vehicle registration numbers, wanted and stolen motor vehicles, outstanding warrants, identifiable stolen property, and such other files as may be of general assistance to criminal justice agencies;   Receive and process fingerprints from the Supreme Court of Georgia Office of Bar Admissions for the purpose of determining whether or not an applicant for admission to the State Bar of Georgia has a criminal record. The processing shall include submission of fingerprints to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for comparison to each of their respective files and data bases;   Provide The Council of Superior Court Clerks of Georgia the data set forth in Code Section 21-2-231, without charge and in the electronic format requested;   Notify the appropriate clerk of court that a defendant has completed his or her first offender sentence or was exonerated of guilt and discharged pursuant to subsection (g) of Code Section 42-8-60 within five days of such completion or exoneration;   Submit fingerprints obtained pursuant to subparagraph (F) of paragraph (1) of this subsection to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for retention under the rules established by the United States Department of Justice for processing and identification of records. Such fingerprints shall be searched by future submissions to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the center shall send appropriate responses to submitting and subscribing entities;   Remove fingerprints obtained pursuant to subparagraph (F) of paragraph (1) of this subsection within ten days of being notified that an individual whose fingerprints were retained under such program is no longer employed by, volunteering for, placed by, or registered, licensed, or permitted by the participating agency or qualified entity. It shall also remove such fingerprints when such agency or qualified entity is no longer participating in such program. The center shall also notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation of such information; and   Be authorized to charge an annual subscriber fee not to exceed $500.00 to any entity which is not a state agency that desires to participate in the program described in subparagraph (F) of paragraph (1) of this subsection.     Criminal justice agencies shall furnish upon written request and without charge to any local fire department in this state a copy, processed under purpose code "E", of the criminal history record information of an applicant for employment.   The provisions of this article notwithstanding, information and records of children shall only be inspected and disclosed as provided in Code Sections 15-11-702 and 15-11-708. Such records and information shall be sealed or destroyed according to the procedures outlined in Code Sections 15-11-701 and 15-11-709.    (Ga. L. 1973, p. 1301, § 3; Ga. L. 1976, p. 617, § 5; Ga. L. 1980, p. 394, § 1; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 35; Ga. L. 1982, p. 952, §§ 2, 4; Ga. L. 1984, p. 22, § 35; Ga. L. 1986, p. 513, § 1; Ga. L. 1992, p. 6, § 35; Ga. L. 1998, p. 842, § 7; Ga. L. 2000, p. 20, § 21; Ga. L. 2000, p. 1549, § 1; Ga. L. 2003, p. 334, § 2; Ga. L. 2007, p. 43, § 1/SB 62; Ga. L. 2010, p. 838, § 10/SB 388; Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 4-44/HB 242; Ga. L. 2014, p. 451, § 11/HB 776; Ga. L. 2016, p. 443, § 6B-2/SB 367; Ga. L. 2016, p. 864, § 35/HB 737; Ga. L. 2017, p. 622, § 2/SB 95; Ga. L. 2018, p. 507, §§ 1A-1, 1A-2/SB 336.)    The 2017 amendment,  effective July 1, 2017, substituted "Code Section 21-2-231" for "Code Sections 15-12-40.1 and 21-2-231" in paragraph (a)(16).    The 2018 amendment,  effective July 1, 2018, deleted "or" at the end of subparagraph (a)(1)(D), added "or" at the end of subparagraph (a)(1)(E), and added subparagraph (a)(1)(F); deleted "and" at the end of paragraph (a)(16); substituted a semicolon for a period at the end of paragraph (a)(17); and added paragraphs (a)(18) through (a)(20).   Editor's notes.   - Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 5-1/HB 242, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "This Act shall become effective on January 1, 2014, and shall apply to all offenses which occur and juvenile proceedings commenced on and after such date. Any offense occurring before January 1, 2014, shall be governed by the statute in effect at the time of such offense and shall be considered a prior adjudication for the purpose of imposing a disposition that provides for a different penalty for subsequent adjudications, of whatever class, pursuant to this Act. The enactment of this Act shall not affect any prosecutions for acts occurring before January 1, 2014, and shall not act as an abatement of any such prosecutions."   Law reviews.   - For article, "Should Georgia Change Its Misdemeanor Arrest Laws to Authorize Issuing More Field Citations? Can Alternative Arrest Process Help Alleviate Georgia's Jail Overcrowding and Reduce the Time Arresting Officers Expend Processing Nontraffic Misdemeanor Offenses?," see 22 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 313 (2005). For article on the 2016 amendment of this Code section, see 33 Georgia St. U. L. Rev. 139 (2016). For article on the 2018 amendment of this Code section, see 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 119 (2018). For note on the 2003 amendment to this Code section, see 20 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 175 (2003).   JUDICIAL DECISIONS    Cited in Kinney v. State, 223 Ga. App. 418, 477 S.E.2d 843 (1996); Gay v. Owens, 292 Ga. 480, 738 S.E.2d 614 (2013).   OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL   ANALYSIS    General Consideration   Fingerprintable Offenses Illustrated   Disclosure    RESEARCH REFERENCES   C.J.S.   - 73 C.J.S., Public Administrative Law and Procedure, § 108 et seq.   ALR.    - Right to take fingerprints and photographs of accused before trial, or to retain same in police record after acquittal or discharge of accused, 83 A.L.R. 127.