The Florida Senate

985.08  Information systems.--

(1)(a)  For the purpose of assisting in law enforcement administration and decisionmaking, such as juvenile diversion from continued involvement with the law enforcement and judicial systems, the sheriff of the county in which juveniles are taken into custody is encouraged to maintain a central identification file on serious habitual juvenile offenders and on juveniles who are at risk of becoming serious habitual juvenile offenders by virtue of having an arrest record.

(b)  The central identification file shall contain, but not be limited to, pertinent dependency record information maintained by the Department of Children and Family Services and delinquency record information maintained by the Department of Juvenile Justice; pertinent school records, including information on behavior, attendance, and achievement; pertinent information on delinquency and dependency maintained by law enforcement agencies and the state attorney; and pertinent information on delinquency and dependency maintained by those agencies charged with screening, assessment, planning, and treatment responsibilities. The information obtained shall be used to develop a multiagency information sheet on serious habitual juvenile offenders or juveniles who are at risk of becoming serious habitual juvenile offenders. The agencies and persons specified in this paragraph shall cooperate with the law enforcement agency or county in providing needed information and in developing the multiagency information sheet to the greatest extent possible.

(c)  As used in this section, "a juvenile who is at risk of becoming a serious habitual juvenile offender" means a juvenile who has been adjudicated delinquent and who meets one or more of the following criteria:

1.  Is arrested for a capital, life, or first degree felony offense or sexual battery.

2.  Has five or more arrests, at least three of which are for felony offenses. Three of such arrests must have occurred within the preceding 12-month period.

3.  Has 10 or more arrests, at least 2 of which are for felony offenses. Three of such arrests must have occurred within the preceding 12-month period.

4.  Has four or more arrests, at least one of which is for a felony offense and occurred within the preceding 12-month period.

5.  Has 10 or more arrests, at least 8 of which are for any of the following offenses:

a.  Petit theft;

b.  Misdemeanor assault;

c.  Possession of a controlled substance;

d.  Weapon or firearm violation; or

e.  Substance abuse.

Four of such arrests must have occurred within the preceding 12-month period.

6.  Meets at least one of the criteria for youth and street gang membership.

(2)(a)  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, confidentiality of records information does not apply to juveniles who have been arrested for an offense that would be a crime if committed by an adult, regarding the sharing of the information on the juvenile with the law enforcement agency or county and any agency or person providing information for the development of the multiagency information sheet as well as the courts, the child, the parents or legal custodians of the child, their attorneys, or any other person authorized by the court to have access. A public or private educational agency shall provide pertinent records to and cooperate with the law enforcement agency or county in providing needed information and developing the multiagency information sheet to the greatest extent possible. Neither these records provided to the law enforcement agency or county nor the records developed from these records for serious habitual juvenile offenders nor the records provided or developed from records provided to the law enforcement agency or county on juveniles at risk of becoming serious habitual juvenile offenders shall be available for public disclosure and inspection under s. 119.07

(b)  The department shall notify the sheriffs of both the prior county of residence and the new county of residence immediately upon learning of the move or other relocation of a juvenile offender who has been adjudicated or had adjudication withheld for a violent misdemeanor or violent felony.

(3)  In order to assist in the integration of the information to be shared, the sharing of information obtained, the joint planning on diversion and early intervention strategies for juveniles at risk of becoming serious habitual juvenile offenders, and the intervention strategies for serious habitual juvenile offenders, a multiagency task force should be organized and utilized by the law enforcement agency or county in conjunction with the initiation of the information system described in subsections (1) and (2). The multiagency task force shall be composed of representatives of those agencies and persons providing information for the central identification file and the multiagency information sheet.

(4)  This multiagency task force shall develop a plan for the information system that includes measures which identify and address any disproportionate representation of ethnic or racial minorities in the information systems and shall develop strategies that address the protection of individual constitutional rights.

(5)  Any law enforcement agency, or county which implements a juvenile offender information system and the multiagency task force which maintain the information system must annually provide any information gathered during the previous year to the delinquency and gang prevention council of the judicial circuit in which the county is located. This information shall include the number, types, and patterns of delinquency tracked by the juvenile offender information system.

History.--s. 5, ch. 90-208; s. 5, ch. 92-287; s. 4, ch. 93-196; s. 4, ch. 93-230; s. 49, ch. 94-209; s. 17, ch. 95-267; s. 19, ch. 96-388; s. 166, ch. 97-101; s. 8, ch. 97-238.

Note.--Former s. 39.0585.