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Committee reviews plan to create Department of Public Safety; major reorganization discussion but no vote
Summary
HB 12‑16 would consolidate multiple public‑safety entities into a Department of Public Safety. Committee members probed confirmation language, headquarters location and new policy language; staff said edits will be made and the bill was not voted on at this hearing.
House Bill 12‑16 proposes creating a Department of Public Safety by consolidating state police, the crime information center, the crime lab, emergency management, the law enforcement support office and various boards and commissions into a single department.
Amy Fetcher, chief transformation officer for the governor, and Martie Garrity of the Bureau of Legislative Research outlined the proposal and said much of the change is administrative consolidation to improve efficiencies and data sharing; Fetcher said centralizing the agencies should, over time, make it easier to share data across functions where appropriate. Members asked about several policy choices in the draft: whether certain offices would be subject to Senate confirmation, whether the headquarters is limited to Little Rock or could be located elsewhere in Pulaski County or Central Arkansas, and whether language in the draft would create new policy rather than transformation. Staff and presenters said the draft will be edited (some language was written before recent decisions about confirmation) and that final versions would be adjusted to reflect those decisions.
Members raised questions about whether some units originally listed in transformation had been moved to independent status (for instance the prosecutor coordinator's office and the public defenders commission). Presenters confirmed those items had been placed on an independent page in the org chart. Members also asked about data‑sharing benefits; presenters said consolidation is expected to help in the future but is not the immediate first step.
After comprehensive discussion, the committee did not take a vote on HB 12‑16 during this meeting; staff will provide edited drafts responding to questions raised.
