Report 2021-112 Recommendation 6 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 #6 To: Justice, Department of
Until the Legislature amends state law and DOJ develops processes to use the CWS/CMS data for child abuse background checks, and to ensure that only appropriate records are removed from CACI, by July 2022 DOJ should develop policies and procedures related to how staff remove records from CACI. These policies and procedures should include a process to verify that deletions are appropriate.
1-Year Agency Response
The DOJ has developed policies to track and to verify each delete meets specific criteria, prior to deleting a report in CACI. The Delete Verification Queue enhancement was developed and released into the CACI database on February 16, 2023. This queue replaced the manual delete verification process.
- Completion Date: February 2023
- Response Date: May 2023
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented
DOJ updated its policies and procedures to ensure that only appropriate records are removed from CACI.
6-Month Agency Response
DOJ has implemented CACI delete procedures, including a supervisory verification process prior to deleting an entry in CACI. Applicant Resource Section (ARS) has the ability to track delete information and roll back a delete if necessary. When the electronic verification queue is released into production, this workload will be more streamlined, rather than a manual process. The manual verification process was a method implemented to immediately address the recommendation to have a reviewer approve a delete, prior to the Crime Analyst II, actually deleting a report from CACI. The delete verification is currently manually performed, by a higher classification (supervisor or manager). Also, as reported, the technical solution is a CACI system enhancement which is creating a "delete verification queue". The delete verification queue is currently under development and will be released in 2023.
- Completion Date: March 2022
- Response Date: December 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented
Even though DOJ has developed polices for how staff should remove records from CACI, DOJ has not developed policies to verify that all deletions from CACI are appropriate.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
60-Day Agency Response
DOJ has implemented CACI delete procedures, including a supervisory verification process prior to deleting an entry in CACI.
- Completion Date: March 2022
- Response Date: July 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
DOJ has not developed adequate policies and procedures to ensure that only appropriate and authorized deletions from CACI occur.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
All Recommendations in 2021-112
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.