It all started simple enough. A question popped up in my inbox from a probation officer. It wasn’t a question about a particular client of mine – just a question from a good probation officer who, seeing beyond the criminal offense, was trying to help one of his young probationers.
“Do you know anything about the process that a probationer could use to be removed from the gang registry?”
And do you know what? I didn’t know, and I felt bad for not knowing. I could tell him all about other legal mechanisms to help restore a person – early release, expunctions, sealing records, and judicial clemency – but nothing about getting off the gang registry. So, I made it a point to find out.
When in doubt about a question like this, turn to the CCP to see if there’s guidance. The answer to the question above is found in Chapter 67. Before answering the question though, it is necessary to understand a little about the gang database.
As an initial matter, it is important to note that Texas is one of a minority of states that have a gang database. In 2005, the FBI established the National Gang Intelligence Center that integrates gang intelligence from across law enforcement agencies at all levels.
Article 67.051 mandates that the State compile and keep a database for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting the criminal activities of combinations or criminal street gangs. Subsection (d) requires local law enforcement to send to the department such information the agency compiles and maintains under Chapter 67. So, first, the database is required at the State level, and local law enforcement agencies are required to participate in providing information to the database.
Article 67.054 outlines the submission criteria for inclusion in the database:
(b) Criminal information collected under this chapter relating to a criminal street gang must:
(1) be relevant to the identification of an organization that is reasonably suspected of involvement in criminal activity; and
(2) consist of:
(A) a judgment under any law that includes, as a finding or as an element of a criminal offense, participation in a criminal street gang;
(B) a self-admission by an individual of criminal street gang membership that is made during a judicial proceeding; or
(C) except as provided by Subsection (c), any two of the following:
(i) a self-admission by the individual of criminal street gang membership that is not made during a judicial proceeding, including the use of the Internet or other electronic format or medium to post photographs or other documentation identifying the individual as a member of a criminal street gang;
(ii) an identification of the individual as a criminal street gang member by a reliable informant or other individual;
(iii) a corroborated identification of the individual as a criminal street gang member by an informant or other individual of unknown reliability;
(iv) evidence that the individual frequents a documented area of a criminal street gang and associates with known criminal street gang members;
(v) evidence that the individual uses, in more than an incidental manner, criminal street gang dress, hand signals, tattoos, or symbols, including expressions of letters, numbers, words, or marks, regardless of how or the means by which the symbols are displayed, that are associated with a criminal street gang that operates in an area frequented by the individual and described by Subparagraph (iv);
(vi) evidence that the individual has been arrested or taken into custody with known criminal street gang members for an offense or conduct consistent with criminal street gang activity;
(vii) evidence that the individual has visited a known criminal street gang member, other than a family member of the individual, while the gang member is confined in or committed to a penal institution; or
(viii) evidence of the individual’s use of technology, including the Internet, to recruit new criminal street gang members.
(c) Evidence described by Subsections (b)(2)(C)(iv) and (vii) is not sufficient to create the eligibility of a person’s information to be included in an intelligence database described by this chapter unless the evidence is combined with information described by another subparagraph of Subsection (b)(2)(C).
So, it is important to recognize and acknowledge that the “gang member” label can be, and likely is, applied without due process and outside the walls of any courthouse. And as becomes obvious from a further read, removing a tattoo is easier than removing a “gang member” label.
The answer to the question of how to remove information from a gang database is contained in Article 67.151 which provides, in relevant part:
(b) Subject to Subsection (c), information collected under this chapter relating to a criminal street gang must be removed after five years from an intelligence database established under Article 67.051 and the intelligence database maintained by the department under Article 67.052 if:
(1) the information relates to the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity engaged in by an individual other than a child; and
(2) the individual who is the subject of the information has not been arrested for criminal activity reported to the department under Chapter 66.
(c) The five-year period described by Subsection (b) does not include any period during which the individual who is the subject of the information is:
(1) confined in a correctional facility operated by or under contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice;
(2) committed to a secure correctional facility, as defined by Section 51.02, Family Code, operated by or under contract with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department; or
(3) confined in a county jail or confined in or committed to a facility operated by a juvenile board in lieu of being confined in a correctional facility described by Subdivision (1) or committed to a secure correctional facility described by Subdivision (2).
Interestingly, the person named in the database does not have to be informed they are named in the database. However, the CCP outlines procedures for determining if a law enforcement agency has collected or is maintaining gang information, requesting a review of criminal information that may have been incorrectly included in a gang database, and also for judicial review of any such determination made. See Art. 67.201- 67.203.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice calls gangs “security threat groups.” TDCJ recognizes 12 such security threat groups: Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, Aryan Circle, Barrio Azteca, Bloods, Crips, Hermanos De Pistoleros Latinos, Mexican Mafia, Partido Revolucionario Mexicanos, Raza Unida, Texas Chicano Brotherhood, Texas Mafia, and Texas Syndicate. TDCJ has created a process for inmates to renounce their membership in one of these security threat groups (aka “gangs”). And it is a process – a 9-month process with several phases – called the Gang Renouncement and Disassociation (GRAD) Process. Of course, there are myriad considerations, not address herein, that must be evaluated before an inmate embarks on the GRAD Process. To say it is dangerous is an understatement. And the fact that an inmate has completed the GRAD Process doesn’t mean the “security threat group” notation will be forever removed. Rather, it means that the new notation will be “ex-security threat group member.” See www.tdcj.texas/gov/divisions/cid/stgmo_GRAD.html (last visited 2/9/21).
I’m thankful I received that email question. Chapter 67 is worth reading. And it’s worth a visit to the TDCJ website to check out the security threat groups and GRAD Process too. The bottom line is that it seems much easier to remove or cover up a tattoo – even a gang tattoo – than to remove the same label law enforcement has applied.
P.S. – We all weathered the recent winter blast together but experienced it in very different ways. Many of us may have experienced only minor inconveniences for a week while some of us were really hit hard and are still recovering from the damage caused. Please know that your TCDLA family is here for you. If there is anything we can do to help you, please reach out to any of us. Let’s take care of each other.
