Guam bill proposes to formally create an existing judicial commission n

By Pacific Island Times News Staff

Sen. Shawn Gumataotao has introduced a measure to codify Guam's 32-year-old Criminal Justice Automation Commission.

Established in 1993, the CJAC has developed the automated infrastructure that has improved access to critical criminal justice records for Guam’s law enforcement agencies.

Over the past 32 years, the Judiciary of Guam has worked with all executive branch criminal justice entities and related federal law enforcement partners to ensure that all the data needed to support their respective public safety roles are developed, collected, stored and shared.

“For three decades, the judicial branch has led this government-wide effort to develop and maintain the criminal justice information systems needed to enforce all the laws of Guam,” Gumataotao said. 

 “No question that our justice system faces challenges of competing needs - this collaborative effort will surely continue efforts to modernize and strengthen the conditions needed for making informed decisions related to crime prevention and criminal justice.”

The proposal would, among other things, formally create the commission, which would develop and maintain a process to determine if and how changes to existing criminal justice applications will impact Guam’s Criminal Justice Information System. The commission currently meets regularly.

“I have seen the work of the commission firsthand,” Gumataotao said. “Their work has evolved over three decades and today remains an important central repository to disseminate and store data shared by our local and federal criminal justice and law enforcement entities.”