Texas Criminal History Improvement Program

The goal of the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) is to improve the Nation's safety and security by enhancing the quality, completeness, and accessibility of criminal history record information and by insuring the nationwide implementation of criminal justice and non-criminal justice background check systems. BJS provides direct financial and technical assistance to the States to improve criminal history and other related records and to build their infrastructure to connect to national record check systems both to supply information and to conduct the requisite checks.
Under this award, the Texas Department of Public Safety will contract with a vendor to update and automate nearly 900,000 Group II (individuals born in 1939 or before) hard copy arrest records and AFIS registration information in a NIST format and directly add them to the state AFIS. Incomplete criminal history records in the state repository are also deficient at the Federal level, thereby negatively affecting national background checks and criminal investigations. Once the records and AFIS registration information have been updated to the state AFIS, they will be transmitted to the FBI for inclusion in the national system. CA/NCF