On Monday, Brown County Judge Ray West presented to County Commissioners the new state law mandating the appointment of members to a Local Data Advisory Board.

Texas HB 2730 (known as the Department of Public Safety (DPS) Sunset bill) now requires a county with an average disposition completeness percentage (percentage of arrest charges reported to DPS for which a disposition has been subsequently reported) of less than 90 percent establish a local data advisory board which would be responsible for preparing a data reporting improvement plan. The plan must describe how the county intends to improve its criminal history reporting to DPS and include a comprehensive strategy by which the county will permanently maintain its disposition completeness percentage at or above 90 percent.

The county is required to establish this Advisory Board by November 1st, 2009 and submit the plan to DPS by June 1, 2010.

County Commissioners approved County Judge Ray West to appoint members to this committee from the various reporting and law enforcement agencies.

Judge Ray West said that the advisory board will be made up of, “The sheriff or sheriff’s designee, an attorney from the DA’s office, an attorney from the County Attorney’s office, someone from the District Clerks office, someone from the County Clerks office, Brownwood Police Chief or his designee, and the county’s automated data services representative.”

This will help the arresting agencies, prosecutors, and the county reporting agencies to better work together in reporting cases.