Need Help addressing an issue that I didn't know was an issue. My DPS guys send me a criminal history attached to their offense report whenever it's necessary. My Sheriff's Office is now telling me that, BY LAW, they can't send criminal history information to me with their offense reports but that they can put the information in their reports, which they don't do. I don't believe it's dissemination with us being same team and all. Any guidance that my one-man-band office can forward to them to shut--or open--them up!

For purposes of your question I'm assuming that we are talking about paper copies of the offense report and criminal history.

I think Section 411.089 of Texas Government Code addresses your issue. Basically it says that if the SO/PD has the info--they can give it to you for a criminal justice purpose.

Hope that helps.

we require them on every case sent for prosecution....
otherwise the case is returned with an notation of incomplete...Had been doing it that way for over 15 years.
Last year or 2 years ago, the Sheriff's office said they were told we had to be certified before they could provide copies to us, otherwise they would not be allowed access to the system.
we took a short class and a short test and now my office is a "certified" agency that can receive the info.
The class and test was administered through one of the certified operators at the sheriff's office.
I was not happy we had to do it that way, but it was the path of least resistance.
Not sure if this helps you or not.

I took the short class, as well, just to cover all bases.

We, too used to require a hard copy as part of the case submission. When then got our own terminal (read only essentially) and we had to take the little course to "be allowed" to look at them. I got 2 certified operators. It is a PIA around "Audit time" but it is nice having quick access during trial, jury selection, things like that.