South Carolina Code 16-8-330. Development and management of statewide criminal gang database
(B) All state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies must furnish information they acquire relating to criminal gangs and gang-related incidents to the State Law Enforcement Division to be included in the database.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 16-8-330
- Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
- Criminal gang: means a formal or informal ongoing organization, association, or group that consists of five or more persons who form for the purpose of committing criminal activity and who knowingly and actively participate in a pattern of criminal gang activity. See South Carolina Code 16-8-230
- Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
(C) The State Law Enforcement Division may determine if information relating to criminal gangs, gang-related incidents, patterns of gang activity, or members or associates of criminal gangs received from federal law enforcement agencies and law enforcement agencies of other states is to be included in the database.
(D) Criminal information relating to a criminal gang and collected pursuant to this article must be consistent with the criteria required on the effective date of this act by the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Center. The State Law Enforcement Division is authorized pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act in Chapter 23 of Title 1:
(1) to promulgate emergency regulations to make the criteria effective for collection of database information until such time as permanent regulations are promulgated and affirmatively approved by the General Assembly;
(2) to promulgate permanent regulations consistent with the criteria required on the effective date of this act, which are to be affirmatively approved by the General Assembly, and to amend those regulations to reflect changes made in the criteria; and
(3) to promulgate permanent regulations concerning the punishment associated with intentional misuse of the database.
(E) Information relating to a person who does not have a criminal arrest record and is not a member of a criminal gang must be used only for intelligence, investigative, and tracking purposes.
(F) The information contained in this database is not subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.