House Bill 1104 came before the House Judiciary Committee on Monday in the Legislature. The bill is designed to decrease the wait time on criminal background checks. Many supporters are landlords who say the wait time is too long on the checks and their potential renters are finding other places to live while results are pending. But not everyone agrees that a quicker turn-around time is realistic.
Patricia Duggan is the State Court Administrator for the South Dakota Unified Judicial System. She says her office’s opposition to the bill is because Clerk of Court offices across the state already have heavy work-loads in addition to these searches.
“Our clerks are very clear and they’ve sent me supporting documentation to show how many searches they’re doing, how long the searches take, what other work they have going on, and we’re not going to be able to meet that four hour requirement even if you impose it on us,” says Duggan.
Supporters of this bill say other states have much faster turn-around times than that of South Dakota. Duggan says 142,000 criminal background checks were done in South Dakota last year. In the end House Bill 1104 was deferred to the 41st day.