Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2016, $326,257)
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 2016 NCHIP award, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) will use funds to support the Expungement/Search Dispositions/Scanning and National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) Audit/Training projects.
Under the 2016 NCHIP award, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) will use funds to support the Expungement/Search Dispositions/Scanning and National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) Audit/Training projects.
Under the Expungement/Search Dispositions/Scanning project, SLED identified expungements as an important topic in South Carolina and a legislative committee has been formed to specifically study the process of removing expungements in the state. SLED does not currently have a backlog of expungements however, nearly 7,000 are received each month and last fiscal year, 84,583 expungements were processed. Removing the charge from an individualÂ’s criminal history will ensure accurate information for criminal investigations but also to make determinations for licensing and employment purposes and ensure accurate information is available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check Systems (NICS) via the Interstate Identification Index (III). Accurate and complete records aid NICS in determining if an individual is eligible to purchase or possess a firearm.
Under the NCIC and AFIS Audit/Training project, SLED, as the Control Terminal Agency for South Carolina, is responsible for ensuring compliance for SLED, all local criminal justice and noncriminal justice agencies as it pertains to the exchange and receipt of criminal justice information. As part of this responsibility, the FBI authorizes and requires triennial compliance audit for all agencies which have direct access to this data exchange ensuring that compliance for rules, regulations and policies are being met within SLED and the FBI. With the duties of the auditor/trainer position approved through the NCHIP 2014 and 2015 grants, SLED has updated NCIC training/testing materials on the NEXTEST online access for law enforcement/civil agencies and updated policies and procedures for all law enforcement agencies to ensure proper compliance with SLED/FBI requirements. The audit process is still very new to the non-criminal justice agencies and because of such, a dedicated non-criminal justice agency auditor/trainer is required. (CA/NCF)