The “tricky” flow of information around a domestic violence situation would be the focus of a study commission proposed by Rep. Bruce MacDonald (D-Boothbay).
In a bill introduced to Legislature’s Judiciary Committee Thursday, MacDonald urged a review of state and federal laws that regulate who should be privy to someone’s personal information after a domestic violence assault. That could include health data, financial records and other personal information.
Maj. Raymond Bessette of the Maine State Police, who oversees support services, testified that sharing information with any organization without direct government oversight could put victims or witnesses at risk and undermine investigations.
“By its very nature, information that is ascertained by law enforcement agencies during the course of a criminal investigation is often very private and personal,” said Bessette. “Present Maine law recognizes that fact by carefully restricting the extent to which records containing investigative information may be disseminated by criminal justice agencies.”
MacDonald said after the meeting that Bessette’s concerns were valid, though he hopes there is still a way to improve the process.
“It’s a tricky problem and it is worth doing a study,” MacDonald said. “The question is, what is there in current laws that we can strip away?”
MacDonald said the impetus for his bill was a seminar he attended over the summer by Dept. of Public Safety Commissioner Anne Jordan. He estimated that it would take a lawyer about a week to undertake the study he proposes. No fiscal note has been generated for this bill.
In addition to his request for a study, MacDonald submitted a concept bill that would have been enhanced by the findings of the study. However, he withdrew the second bill after learning of a proposal by Rep. Anne Haskell (D-Portland).
Haskell’s bill, which has yet to be debated by the Judiciary Committee, would amend the state’s criminal history record law to allow law enforcement agencies to share investigative reports with family violence projects and other service providers.
Sponsored by nine other legislators, the bill would require service entities to have a prior arrangement with a law enforcement agency to be eligible to receive information. Use of the information would be limited to the case at hand, a provision which would be enforced through a sanctioning system. Any such arrangement would require the approval of the commissioner of the department of public safety.
Bessette, who took no position regarding the study proposed by MacDonald, said his department “would be very concerned” with any requirement that loosens the flow of information more than Maine laws already permit. He said the laws already “strike an equitable balance” between a victim seeking information and a law enforcement agency’s need to protect the privacy of victims, witnesses and families.
In addition to those concerns, Bessette said that complying with the law would deplete the resources of his department and others. In 2007, Maine law enforcement agencies responded to 5771 incidents of domestic violence.
Steve Edmondson, a domestic violence investigator for the Sagadahoc County District Attorney’s Office for the past six years, said he supports MacDonald’s and Haskell’s bills in general.
“In my role I often find myself in the middle,” said Edmondson, who also has sat on the board of Family Crisis Services and who chairs an association of domestic violence investigators. “Advocacy groups are very good with confidential information. There are certain boundaries they won’t cross even with me.”
Bessette said the Maine State Police, in response to a legislative resolve passed last session, underwent a review of all of its policies for responding to or preventing domestic violence over the summer. The study’s results are scheduled to be reported to the Criminal Justice Committee on Wed., Feb. 18. Further consideration of MacDonald’s bill has not been scheduled.
(Statehouse News Service)
