Arizona FY 2014 NCHIP Application

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 noncriminal 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 Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) has proposed projects at both the state and local level that result in more Arizona records being available to the Interstate Identification Index (III), the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Specifically, ACJC will oversee and support the following activities: 1) the Maricopa County Superior Court will use funds to upgrade their case management system to enable the ability to flag records in the system to identify dispositions which qualify for reporting to III and NICS; 2) the Pinal County Sheriff's Office will use funds for staff overtime to research and entering the historical backlog of dispositions that are not currently available at the time of a background check; 3) the Maricopa County Attorney's Office will use funds for staff overtime to reduce the backlog of new and historical dispositions to ensure they are available at the time of a background check; 4) the Central State Repository will use funds for staff overtime to automate about 2,500 criminal history records and generate final disposition reports. Funds will also be used to implement database programming enhancements to allow the state to become the sole disseminator of criminal history record information and work toward full National Fingerprint File (NFF) participation; 5) the Globe Police Department will purchase and install a livescan system to transition from ink and roll printing to fully automated fingerprint and arrest reporting; and 6) the Pinal County Justice Courts will purchase two livescan systems to allow for more efficient and complete reporting of misdemeanor domestic violence and drug cases to the state repository. (CA/NCF)