Florida's NICS Act Record Improvement Program FY 2013

The NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110-180 ("NICS Improvement Act"), was signed into law by the President on January 8, 2008. The NICS Improvement Act amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 ("the Brady Act") (Pub. L. 103-159), under which the Attorney General established the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The Brady Act requires Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to contact the NICS before transferring a firearm to an unlicensed person for information on whether the proposed transferee is prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm under state or federal law. The NICS Improvement Act authorizes grants to be made in a manner consistent with the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP).

Under this award, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) will use funds to complete tasks associated with the following objectives: 1) augment staff for the Florida Firearm Purchase Program (FPP) to handle incoming calls, including entry of dealer information into the state's online Firearms Eligibility System (FES) for firearms transactions and entry of purchaser demographic information for the record checks; 2) hire staff to research missing felony dispositions, process disposition records received from Clerks of Court that require manual intervention, and assist the FDLE FPP in researching felony arrests without a disposition; 3) employ staff to enter historical data into the state's Mental Competency (MECOM) database, work with Clerks of Court to conduct research and analysis of records to improve the processing and maintenance of these records, complete evaluation of civil mental health data to establish a baseline for the state by county, and create and conduct training for local Clerks of Court; 4) contract with a vendor to perform a thorough data profile and analysis of the state's Computerized Criminal History (CCH) data to pinpoint anomalies or outliers that exist in the data in order to develop a more accurate set of standardized records, reduce the error queue, and provide for faster access to criminal history information for firearm purchase determinations and decisions on sensitive licensing and employment; 5) complete programmatic efforts to streamline the process that the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services follows when conducting background checks for current or potential armed security guards to determine when individuals are no longer eligible to possess concealed weapons permits and/or security guard licenses; and 6) continue efforts to modernize Florida's criminal history repository to provide access to more complete information to make determinations whether a gun purchaser is prohibited from purchasing a firearm by making enhancements such as adding a probation termination data field, accurately documenting the charges added while a subject is still in jail custody; and standardizing data that include felony, domestic violence, and other disqualifying information to make it discernible from other records. CA/NCF