Joint Technology Committee votes to draft bill moving CJIS operations from Public Safety to Judicial Branch

The Joint Technology Committee voted unanimously to draft legislation to move operations of the Colorado Integrated Criminal Justice Information System from the Department of Public Safety to the Colorado Judicial Branch.

Senator Marchman moved to draft the legislation and committee members recorded aye votes during a roll call that included Senator Bazely, Representative Haskell, Senator Rodriguez, Representative Weinberg and Senator Marchman; the motion passed unanimously. "I move to draft legislation regarding moving the Colorado Integrated Criminal Justice System Operations from the Department of Public Safety to the Colorado Judicial Branch," Senator Marchman said.

Chris Wallner, chief information officer for CJIS, said the cross‑platform data‑sharing program was created by statute in 1998 and revised in 2002 and requires participation by five agencies. "CJIS is the only cross platform data sharing program in the state that I'm aware of. We do about 10,000,000 transfers per year of criminal justice information," Wallner said.

Joe Malacca, legislative director for the Department of Public Safety, and Melissa Jamieson, executive director of the Office of Administrative Services for Independent Agencies (OASIA), described administrative readiness. Jamieson said OASIA was created by statute and reenacted in 2024 and now provides administrative services to multiple independent agencies under the judicial umbrella. She said OASIA expects to stand up required administrative solutions for its agencies by January 1, 2026.

Committee members discussed potential fiscal impacts of the transfer. Malek (legislative staff) said there would likely be a fiscal note to capture how operating funds transfer from Public Safety to Judicial but that an increase in appropriation was not expected. Members also asked staff to review the existing CJIS statute for outdated language and to consider tweaks to reflect CJIS’s operational expansion beyond the five agencies specified in the 1998 statute.

The committee instructed staff to prepare a draft bill and directed legislative counsel to examine the statute and incorporate any necessary updates; the committee did not adopt final statutory language during the meeting.