Back
FBI sanctions SLED, state access to crime databases at risk
Agency chief: Bigger budget for computers, computer technicians would solve issue
By ADAM BEAMabeam@thestate.com
-
SLED’s budget request
SLED is requesting $40.5 million in next year’s state budget, including:
$31.5 million — For its base budget, $7.8 million more than last year
$8.5 million — In one-time money to buy computer equipment, bullet-proof vests, cars and uniforms
The FBI has sanctioned the State Law Enforcement Division for not properly monitoring criminal records that are shared among states.
The sanction is the first step toward revoking South Carolina’s access to the FBI’s criminal databases. That action would have serious consequences for law enforcement officers on the street as well as businesses and nonprofits who depend on the system for pre-employment background checks.
If South Carolina loses access to the system, a police officer could pull over a person who is wanted on a murder charge in Kansas, for instance, and have no way of knowing it. Or a state company could run a background check for a prospective employee and not know of felony convictions in other states.
“It’s hugely important,” said Jeff Moore, executive director of the S.C. Sheriff’s Association.
New SLED Chief Mark Keel told a House subcommittee Thursday that he needs to spend $6 million to ensure the state does not lose its access to the federal databases. That money would go to buy $4.7 million of computer equipment and hire 23 people to work in SLED’s information technology department.
Keel said the sanctions came because SLED’s prior administration had planned to outsource most of the agency’s information technology work. The plans caused SLED to lost most of its IT staff, which left the agency unable to monitor local law enforcement agencies as they used the federal system. That lead to the sanctions from the FBI.
“I don’t know if the prior administration understood how important this particular part of the agency was.”
The $6 million is part of SLED’s $31.5 million request for the state’s budget year that starts July 1. That is 35 percent more than the agency received this year but still less than its 2008 budget of $36.5 million, approved before the budget cuts forced by the Great Recession.
SLED also is requesting an additional $8.7 million in one-time money to buy equipment.
SLED is supposed to audit every local law enforcement agency to ensure it is using the federal database system properly. But the agency stopped doing those audits in 2007, according to an October letter from an FBI advisory board to Gov. Nikki Haley. Last week, that advisory board voted to sanction SLED but commended the agency for working to fix the problems.
“We’ve basically been spanked,” Keel said. “We’ve been told to get our house in order.”
Keel said Haley has approved his budget request and plans to make it part of the executive budget that she will send to the House early next year.
State Rep. Michael Pitts, R-Laurens, a former Greenville police officer and chairman of the three-member House budget subcommittee that heard Keel Thursday, said he supported the request. “I understand how vital that information is, especially to a street officer at two o’clock in the morning when that may be his only link to survival.”