§ 9121. General regulations.
(a) Dissemination to criminal justice agencies.--Criminal history record information maintained by any criminal justice agency shall be disseminated without charge to any criminal justice agency or to any noncriminal justice agency that is providing a service for which a criminal justice agency is responsible.
(b) Dissemination to noncriminal justice agencies and individuals.--Criminal history record information shall be disseminated by a State or local police department to any individual or noncriminal justice agency only upon request. Except as provided in subsection (b.1):
(1) A fee may be charged by a State or local police department for each request for criminal history record information by an individual or noncriminal justice agency, except that no fee shall be charged to an individual who makes the request in order to apply to become a volunteer with an affiliate of Big Brothers of America or Big Sisters of America or with a rape crisis center or domestic violence program.
(2) Before a State or local police department disseminates criminal history record information to an individual or noncriminal justice agency, it shall extract from the record all notations of arrests, indictments or other information relating to the initiation of criminal proceedings where:
(i) three years have elapsed from the date of arrest;
(ii) no conviction has occurred; and
(iii) no proceedings are pending seeking a conviction.
(b.1) Exception.--Subsection (b)(1) and (2) shall not apply if the request is made by a county children and youth agency or the Department of Public Welfare in the performance of duties relating to children and youth under the act of June 24, 1937 (P.L.2017, No.396), known as the County Institution District Law, section 2168 of the act of August 9, 1955 (P.L.323, No.130), known as The County Code, the act of June 13, 1967 (P.L.31, No.21), known as the Public Welfare Code, 23 Pa.C.S. Ch. 63 (relating to child protective services) or 42 Pa.C.S. Ch. 63 (relating to juvenile matters).
(c) Data required to be kept.--Any criminal justice agency which disseminates criminal history record information must indicate to the recipient that the information disseminated is only that information contained in its own file, the date of the last entry, and that a summary of the Statewide criminal history record information may be obtained from the central repository.
(d) Extracting from the record.--When criminal history record information is maintained by a criminal justice agency in records containing investigative information, intelligence information, treatment information or other nonpublic information, the agency may extract and disseminate only the criminal history record information if the dissemination is to be made to a noncriminal justice agency or individual.
(e) Dissemination procedures.--Criminal justice agencies may establish reasonable procedures for the dissemination of criminal history record information.
(f) Notations on record.--Repositories must enter as a permanent part of an individual's criminal history record information file, a listing of all persons and agencies to whom they have disseminated that particular criminal history record information and the date and purpose for which the information was disseminated. Such listing shall be maintained separate from the record itself.
(Dec. 14, 1979, P.L.556, No.127, eff. imd.; June 11, 1982, P.L.476, No.138, eff. 180 days; July 2, 1996, P.L.480, No.76, eff. 60 days; Dec. 21, 1998, P.L.1103, No.149, eff. 60 days; Oct. 28, 2002, P.L.888, No.129, eff. imd.)
2002 Amendment. Act 129 amended subsec. (b).
1996 Amendment. Act 76 amended subsec. (b) and added subsec. (b.1).
1982 Amendment. Act 138 amended subsecs. (a) and (b).
References in Text. The Department of Public Welfare, referred to in this section, was redesignated as the Department of Human Services by Act 132 of 2014.
Cross References. Section 9121 is referred to in section 1206 of Title 4 (Amusements); section 3705 of Title 22 (Detectives and Private Police); section 6344 of Title 23 (Domestic Relations); sections 2161, 6309 of Title 42 (Judiciary and Judicial Procedure).
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