The money is part of a grab-bag of spending priorities outlined in a $30 million proposal, House Bill 548. The legislation — often referred to as a “junior” spending bill — now goes to the Senate.
Each of the 70 members of the House got a share of the money to put toward favored projects.
The funding for data-sharing comes as lawmakers push to encourage better tracking of offenders who cross jurisdictional lines.
They have sent to the governor a proposal, House Bill 267, that calls on the New Mexico sentencing commission to create a data-sharing network with help from New Mexico Tech. The junior spending bill earmarks $510,000 for the effort.
Sen. Sander Rue, an Albuquerque Republican and a co-sponsor of House Bill 267, said the network would allow police, prosecutors and other agencies to measure how well certain initiatives are working and make it easier for them to track offenders who use aliases or commit crimes in different communities.
A nonpartisan task force helped develop the proposal.
©2019 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
