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Data warehouse bill draws praise and caution as committee hears concerns about scope and privacy
Summary
Rep. Bill Mercer’s bill to authorize the criminal justice data warehouse prompted support for the project’s purpose but opposition from law‑enforcement and prosecutors’ groups who said specifying data points in statute is premature while technical, jurisdictional and privacy issues remain unresolved.
Representative Bill Mercer described House Bill 6 91 as an effort to articulate legislative intent for the criminal justice data warehouse — a statewide integrated database under development to support analysis of criminal histories, programming outcomes and recidivism patterns.
Mercer said the Legislature needs to identify the types of analyses the warehouse should enable — complete criminal histories, sentencing dates, treatment programming and drug involvement — so the state can collect the data that will answer those policy questions. "If we're gonna create this warehouse ... we have to think about the end product," he said.
Janice Friess, director of the Board of Crime Control’s Statistical Analysis Center, and Eric Strauss from the Department of Corrections appeared as informational witnesses. They said the Board of Crime Control has been running pilot projects and working on technical collection, but that issues remain, particularly around obtaining criminal‑history data from the Department of Justice and reconciling agency systems.
Nanette Gilbertson, representing sheriffs and county attorneys, testified in opposition to putting detailed data‑collection requirements into statute at this time. She said stakeholders had worked collaboratively in a multi‑stakeholder process and that embedding specific lists of data points into law risks premature or overly prescriptive mandates. Other groups — including the Coalition for Safety and Justice and domestic violence advocates — urged caution and recommended continued technical work through the criminal justice oversight council and board of crime control.
Mercer responded that pilot work is ongoing but said the Legislature should express its priorities now so the warehouse is built to answer policy questions the Legislature will ask. The committee took no final action, and Mercer asked for further work with the Board of Crime Control and Criminal Justice Oversight Council.
