Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2015, $90,396)
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 the 2015 NARIP award, the Wisconsin Department of Justice (WDOJ) will develop a process and interface designed to automatically validate the mental health data that WDOJ receives from the Wisconsin Circuit Court Automation Program (CCAP) and provides to NICS.
The WDOJ and CCAP recently implemented an electronic transfer of mental health data that is maintained within the DOJ Prohibited Person File with access restricted in accordance with WI statutes. The WDOJ is authorized to transfer this data to the NICS Index. NICS polices require periodic validation of records to ensure accuracy. To minimize manual resources within the WDOJ and CCAP, and to improve the timeliness of updates, an automated validation of mental health data will be implemented to comply with CJIS requirements and ensure mental health data maintained at the state and federal level is current and accurate. WDOJ will automate the actual validation process of comparing data already maintained within the WDOJ database with the new information received from CCAP to ensure it is current and accurate.
CA/NCF