SEARCH is pleased to announce the appointment of new Members representing the states of Alabama and Texas to serve on the SEARCH Membership Group:
Captain Mike Trotter, CJIS Services Manager, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, State Bureau of Investigations, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), was appointed August 26, 2024, by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey.
The ALEA CJIS Division houses the state’s Sex Offender Registry, Criminal Records Identification, Latent Print, Incident Reporting, and Compliance units. Each unit provides services to the public and law enforcement agencies
Captain Trotter succeeds Mr. Avery Morris, who served as Alabama’s SEARCH Member for 2 years before retiring.
Ms. Catalina Rodriguez Combs, Senior Director, Crime Records Service, Texas Department of Public Safety, was appointed September 9, 2024, by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
The Texas DPS Crime Records Division is responsible for administering eight state and national criminal justice programs, providing critical operational data to law enforcement and criminal justice agencies in Texas and nationwide. One of these programs, the Crime Records Service, administers systems for biometric identification, fingerprinting, data sharing, sex offender registration, crime reporting, and more. As SEARCH Member, Ms. Rodriguez-Combs succeeds Ms. Michelle Farris, who had served as Texas’s SEARCH Member since January 2021 and also had served on the SEARCH Board of Directors. Ms. Farris retired from state service in August 2024.
The SEARCH Membership Group, the governing body of SEARCH, is comprised of one from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories (selected by the jurisdiction’s governor or director of the agency housing the state criminal history record repository), as well as eight at-large appointees selected by SEARCH’s Chair. This national body of state-level professionals is widely representative of the various disciplines within the justice system, and many are responsible for operational decisions and policymaking concerning the management and sharing of criminal justice information.
