CHAPTER 669

An Act to create, as a division in the Attorney Generals Office, the
Central Criminal Records Exchange; to provide for the maintenance
by it of records of persons arrested or convicted of felonies and certain
misdemeanors, and the furnishing of such records to certain State and
local officials and agencies on request; to require reports of arrests
and convictions by law enforcement agencies and courts; to approprt-
ate funds; and to repeal § 19.1-260 of the Code of Virginia, relating
to the keeping of certain records by clerks of courts of record. -

[H 201}

Approved April 6, 1966

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. There is hereby established as a division within the office of the
Attorney General of Virginia the Central Criminal Records Exchange.
The Exchange shall be under the control of the Attorney General, who is
hereby authorized to employ such personnel, establish such offices and
acquire such equipment as shall be necessary to carry out the purposes of
this act. The Attorney General is also authorized to enter into agreements
with other State agencies for services to be performed for it by employees
of such other agencies.

(a) It shall be the duty of the Central Criminal Records
Exchange to receive, classify and file records required to be reported to it
by § 3 of this act. The Exchange is authorized to prepare and furnish to
all State and local law enforcement officials and agencies, and to clerks of
courts of record and courts not of record, forms which shall be used for
the making of such reports.

(b) The Central Criminal Records Exchange shall furnish copies of
the records in its files on request from any person concerning whom a
report has been made under the provisions of this act or his authorized
representative, from any official or agency required to make reports to it,
or from any federal law enforcement agency, or from the Armed Forces
of the United States, or from any State or local probation or parole officer
or similar federal officer employed by any federal court in this State, or
from any official of any penal institution of this State, or from any agency
of any other state which maintains a repository of criminal records, or
from the chief law enforcement officer or agency of any other state. Such
records shall not be made available to the public.

§ 3. (a) On and after January one, nineteen hundred sixty-eight,
every State official or agency having the power of arrest, the sheriffs of
counties, the police officials of cities and towns, and any other local law
enforcement officer or conservator of the peace having the power to arrest
for a felony shall make a report to the Central Criminal Records Exchange,
on forms provided by it, of any arrest on a charge of treason or of any
felony or of any of the following offenses punishable as misdemeanors:
bribery ; petit larceny ; obtaining money or property under false pretenses;
Indecent exnosure* vagrancv: ar anv violation of the laws relating tn tha
bawdy places, child abuse, or obscenity. Such reports shall contain such
information as shall be required by the Exchange and shall be accom-
panied by fingerprints of the individual arrested and information as to
whether a photograph of the individual is available.

(b) On and after January one, nineteen hundred sixty-seven, the
clerk of each court of record and court not of record shall make a report to
the Central Criminal Records Exchange of any dismissal, nolle prosque,
acquittal, or conviction of, or failure of a grand jury to return a true bill
as to, any person charged with an offense listed in subsection (a) of this
section. No such report of conviction shall be made by the clerk of a court
not of record unless the period allowed for an appeal has elapsed and no
appeal has been perfected. In the event that the records in the office of
any clerk show that any conviction has been nullified in any manner, he
shall also make a report of that fact. For each such report made by a
clerk of a court of record, he shall be allowed a fee of fifty cents, to be
paid from the appropriation for criminal charges.

(c) If the Attorney General certifies to the Governor, prior to
January one, nineteen hundred sixty-eight, that it has not been pos-
sible to establish and equip their files to receive, store, retrieve and dis-
seminate the information required by this section to be reported to the
Central Exchange, or any part thereof, then reports of such information
shall not be required until the Governor, after receiving information that
such files are so established and equipped, proclaims such reports to be
required.

§ 4. Each State official and agency shall make available to the
Central Criminal] Records Exchange such of their records as are pertinent
to its functions and shall cooperate with the Exchange in the development
and use of equipment and facilities on a joint basis, where feasible. On
and after January one, nineteen hundred sixty-eight, no State official or
agency shall maintain records which are a duplication of the records on
deposit in the Central Criminal Records Exchange, except to the extent
necessary for efficient internal administration of such agency.

3. § 19.1-260 of the Code of Virginia is repealed.