Page 28 - NCISS Your Advocate September-Summer 2021

Legislative Update from NCISS Legislative Committee and Lobbyit

As part of AO 1994-4, effective 07/01 2021 the court ordered the removal of all personal identifiers from public court
files other than the defendant's name. On 06/30/2021 the same court stayed their order until 01/01/2022. As is the
growing national trend, this is a knee jerk reaction to protect individual privacy and personal identifiers. Examples to be
redacted in filing with the state courts are DOBs, SSNs, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers, addresses, etc).

➢ Tennessee – Changes PI Licensing Oversight
(Kelly Riddle, TBCI – Kelmar Global)
In Tennessee PI licensing will no longer be regulated by the Tennessee Private Investigator and Polygraph Commission,
and is now under the newly created Detection Services Licensing Program under the Department of Commerce and
Insurance. Private investigators will no longer be required to affiliate with a licensed investigations company. This seems
to be a trend. As Kelly said, “This seems to be a trend.”

➢ Texas SB 15 and HB 2099 – DPPA Restrictions / Remove Exemptions
(Texas Association of Licensed Private Investigators – TALI – Legislative Committee – Randy Kildow)
Two bills that were filed: 1) SB15 eliminates private investigators having access to DMV records, strikes the DPPA
language almost entirely; and SB16 makes the sale of ANY information by the state forbidden. Randy Kildow at TALI met
with the Senator’s office on the DMV bill and were very receptive and indicated that they are going to include the
existing exemptions we use.

Then on 04/06/2021 HB 2099 was heard and Randy also testified. HB 2099 is similar to SB 15, and is more dangerous
than SB 15 as it eliminates almost every exemption to access to DMV record. Of course, that means the SB 15 exemption
the week prior has been struck. SB 15 and SB 16 literally could have destroyed our industry. SB 15 was amended
successfully due to many industries working together on the bill, and TALI was successful in getting the Private
Investigator exemption restored. That is because PI’s were the first to lobby the bill; similar bills in other states and were
not being restored. SB 16 the most dangerous bill of the session did not even get a hearing.

NCISS and Your State Associations – Working Together

NCISS, working with state associations, is asking for help with the following:
• Who has a state DMV / Data / Privacy bill?
• Do you think it will pass or does it have enough support?
• How can NCISS and other associations assist?

The impetus for these restrictive bills we are low hanging fruit due to misconceptions of being shady and unprofessional.

NCISS continues to work with associations to monitor the aggressive nature of state legislatures and agencies restricting
lawful access to these important records and information for the public health and safety work by private investigators.

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