Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2015, $1,232,064)
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 the 2015 NCHIP award, the Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS) will use funds to support the APSIN System Strategy, Missing Disposition Backlog, Consolidation of Duplicate Criminal Records, Livescan/AFIS capability: Fingerprint Accuracy and Quality and Alaska Court System (ACS) projects.
Under the ASPIN System Strategy project, the AK DPS will continue development of several of state interfaces to national criminal information repositories. AK DPS intended to move forward in its efforts to completely replace their existing Alaska Public Safety Information Network (APSIN) in 2014 with newer web-based technology. After reevaluating the best approach, DPS chose to cease the replacement of the existing system which was comprised of mainframe, web services, broker services and enterprise service bus technology and instead, build on and supplement with the latest technology.
Under the missing disposition backlog project, the AK DPS will continue to update records with additional felony/misdemeanor disposition information. Additionally, due to several challenges in retaining staff to enter Alaska Court sentencing information, the state is projecting further backlog issues. Given a recent policy change from the ACS, it is unlikely that an automated means of reporting criminal case disposition information will be developed in the near future.
Under the consolidation of duplicate criminal records project, AK DPS designed the criminal history repository to ensure identity integrity of records forwarded to state and federal databases and inquiries. Currently, DPS assigns a State Identification Number (SID) to persons who have contact with criminal justice agencies. If a person is associated with more than one SID, it creates identity ambiguity and records are blocked from transmission. Duplicate records may be created due to spelling inconsistencies or lack of sufficient identifying information for an automated interface to verify duplicate records are being submitted.
AK DPS will also use funds to continue efforts from FY 2014 to replace outdated Livescan systems across the state. The State of Alaska proposes to improve the total percentage of fingerprint identified records by replacing ten (10) additional Livescan systems. The state's highest volume correctional facilities and several local police agencies are equipped with livescan fingerprint machines, which have reduced the time between collection and submission of criminal fingerprints from days or weeks to minutes or hours.
Under the Alaska Court Project, AK DPS will contract with ACS to continue efforts to close the gaps in criminal history records that impede the ability of NICS to accurately confirm a prohibited prospective buyer of a firearm. This project will work simultaneously with the efforts of DPS to research and locate dispositions to update criminal history records, assist with the development and implementation of operating and working procedures, policies and standards to improve the automation of court records
(CA/NCF)