Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2014, $597,901)
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.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice (WI DOJ) and criminal justice systems throughout the State of Wisconsin have actively pursued efforts to improve the speed, accuracy and scope of the criminal history record repository yet continue to identify ongoing areas of improvement. Given the number of justice system agencies involved in the CCH process and the turnover of personnel, the following areas are ongoing needs that will be addressed with funding under this award: 1) Automation of law enforcement records; and 2) Completeness of/and or delays in arrest and disposition reporting.
Under this award, funds will be used to expand to additional law enforcement agencies the eReferral interface that enables the electronic exchanging of Arrest Tracking Numbers and other case referral information between local law enforcement agencies and District Attorney's offices. The centerpiece of this expansion will include Milwaukee Police Department, which referred over 16,000 cases in 2013, by far the largest amount of any law enforcement agency in the state. Funds will also be used to conduct a data quality and technical infrastructure study to assess the quality of Wisconsin's criminal history records on three criteria: 1) completeness; 2) accuracy; and 3) timeliness, with the ultimate goal of ensuring improvement in these areas for records forwarded from the state to federal systems. (CA/NCF)