Report 2021-112 Recommendation 9 Responses
Report 2021-112: The Child Abuse Central Index: The Unreliability of This Database Puts Children at Risk and May Violate Individuals' Rights (Release Date: May 2022)
Recommendation #9 To: Justice, Department of
To ensure that suspects' information is deleted from CACI in accordance with state law, by November 2022 DOJ should research and address the 36,000 reports in CACI lacking birth dates by entering the suspect's correct birth date and removing suspects who no longer meet the CACI requirements.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2024
On June 30, 2023, an initial letter was sent to all contributing agencies requesting the submission of Child Abuse or Severe Neglect Indexing Forms (BCIA 8583) with the suspect's date of birth. Agencies were initially given 45 days to provide this information to the DOJ. At the request of DSS, an extension was granted by DOJ, extending the deadline to January 30, 2024.
Subsequently, on May 7, 2024, DOJ notified all contributing agencies to resubmit BCIA 8583 forms that were still missing suspect dates of birth. The letter clarified that any records missing this information by June 3, 2024, would be removed from the CACI as incomplete. Agencies were also reminded to promptly resubmit any corrected forms if they later obtain the missing information, to ensure the CACI remains up to date.
On December 10, 2024, DOJ will purge all records from the CACI that lack a suspect's date of birth.
- Estimated Completion Date: September 2024
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
Per DOJ's response, it has not fully implemented this recommendation.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2023
The 37,000 CACI records have been returned to the contributing agency and DOJ has requested the suspect's date of birth. In order to subsequently update the suspect's date of birth in CACI, the DOJ is dependent upon the contributing agency not solely DSS to provide the suspect's missing date of birth. By completing the process for returning records to the contributing agencies, DOJ has implemented the recommendations to the extent possible and any further progress will be dependent upon actions of reporting agencies and CDSS.
- Estimated Completion Date: In progress
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
Per DOJ's response, it has not fully implemented this recommendation.
1-Year Agency Response
The 37,000 CACI records are being prepared to return to the contributing agency and DOJ is requesting the suspect's date of birth. The DOJ anticipates returning the BCIA 8583 forms to the contributing agency by June 30, 2023. In order to subsequently update the suspect's date of birth in CACI, the DOJ is dependent upon DSS to provide the suspect's missing date of birth.
- Estimated Completion Date: In progress
- Response Date: May 2023
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending
Per DOJ's response, it has not fully implemented this recommendation.
6-Month Agency Response
The DOJ has manually reviewed approximately 37,000 CACI records with the suspect's date of birth missing. The DOJ has approximately 1,500 remaining records to review. DOJ anticipates the conclusion of reviewing the records by January 2023. Once DOJ concludes its review, it will return the BCIA 8583 forms to the contributing agency and will request the suspect's missing date of birth.
For this recommendation to be fully implemented, the DOJ is dependent upon on the counties providing the missing information to enter the date of birth.
- Estimated Completion Date: June 2023
- Response Date: November 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented
Per DOJ's response, it will not fully implement this recommendation until June 2023.
60-Day Agency Response
This recommendation is not fully implemented because the DOJ must depend on the counties providing the missing information to enter the date of birth. However, DOJ has completed researching the 36,000+ records relating to suspects that do not have a date of birth entered in CACI. The counties submitted 32,149 CACI reports without the suspect's dates of birth. DOJ is preparing to return these CACI reports to the counties to provide the suspects' dates of birth. For another 4,686 CACI reports, the date of birth has been updated in CACI.
- Estimated Completion Date: Unknown
- Response Date: July 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
Per DOJ's response, it has not implemented this recommendation.
All Recommendations in 2021-112
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.