ustxtxb_obs_1978_09_22_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

Fine Food Draught Beer Outdoor Patio IN AUSTIN: 1514 LAVACA 6103 BURNET RD. IN FORT WORTH: 6301 CAMP BOWIE BLVD. In the business of repro duction. the quality of the copy is commensurate with the quality of the original. Let us improve the appearance of your copies by preparing quality originals or by showing you how to. Either way you save at Ginny’s. Providing Professional Graphic Services and Consultation for today’s Reproduction Methods 16 SEPTEMBER 22, 1978 IN DALLAS: 4528 McKINNEY AVE. 209 S. AKARD, downtown RICHARDSON: 508 LOCKWOOD FARMERS BRANCH SHOPPING CTR. SW CORNER, VALLEY VIEW IN WACO: 25TH & COLUMBUS ANDERSON & COMPANY COFFEE TEA SPICES AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 512 453-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip PRESS is in the forefront of publishing Texas fiction. BOOMER’S GOLD a novel of Borger, Texas, as a boom town by Jack Walker, $10 SUGARLAND a tale of Texas prisons by Paul Foreman, $7.50 forthcoming: THE COLLECTED STORIES OF AMADO MURO Write for catalog: THORP SPRINGS PRESS 3414 Robinson Avenue Austin, Texas 78722 Good books in every field JENKINS PUBLISHING CO. The Pemberton Press John H. Jenkins, Publisher Box 2085 g31 Austin 78768 HALF PRICE RECORDS MAG Az IN ES 1 THORPSPRINGS DPS. . . from page 9 dividual has not been convicted of a felony in the previous five years. “That would cover wrongful arrests,” says Austin attorney Mark Cohen, legal counsel to Schwartz’s committee. “And as small a victory as that might seem, it was a tenyear fight to get it passed. You see, it’s political suicide to be considered soft on law enforcement in Texas.” For now, the legislative initiative seems to lie with the private security outfits that are lobbying hard for wide-open data dissemination. Cohen blames their success so far on DPS, and he’s pessimistic. “It’s the bureacratic mentality,” he says. “They say, ‘We’ve got all this informationnow, let’s get it all out there.’ ” But there’s still some hopethe private security companies’ bid for easy access has met with surprising opposition among members of the House subcommittee on criminal records. For instance, Rep. Bill Ceverha, a conservative Dallas Republican, takes the view that “it’s unfair to use this information against someone in a job.” And all members agree that DPS and the courts should be required to get follow-up information into the record. Of course, there are still those, like subcommittee member Bob McFarland ofArlington, who unreservedly support the idea of opening up criminal records to all comers. By way of dispositive argument, McFarland offers the following: “I don’t believe employers should be required to hire a baby-sitter who. has been arrested five times for child molestation.” Remarks like that help explain Cohen’s pessimism, but the prospect is that some balanced recommendations may actually emerge when the subcommittee rejoins the full House judiciary group soon to draft a policy for the next Legislature to consider. There’s considerable sentiment for confining disclosure to conviction recordseven Colonel Speir says he “would not be adverse” to keeping other data off limits. Some on the subcommittee favor a clause requiring an applicant for access to DPS records to demonstrate some sort of “need to know.” Others can be expected to argue for a purge of stale records from state files. Before legislative penny-pinchers reject such suggestions, they should realize that a lot more than money is riding on their reaction to the bad idea the private security outfits would like to enact into law. To quote Cohen again: “If they do it with criminal records, it’s just the beginning. Watch. They’ll be back tomorrow wanting to add divorce judgments, loan defaultsit’s endless.” Sue Duffy, a former reporter for The Trenton Times in New Jersey, recently signed on as an editorial assistant with Texas Monthly magazine.