FY 2017 NARIP Virginia State Police

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 2017 NARIP priority areas, the Virginia State Police (VSP) will administer and monitor the following 3 continuation projects in collaboration with their partner agencies:

1) Developer for JAVA Computerized History (JCCH) System: VSP will use NARIP funds to contract 2 IT Specialists who will assist in programming the 100 deferred critical functions in the replacement JCCH system and the batch reports, as well as resolving approximately 388 existing defects in the system. The VSP is currently programming a replacement JCCH which was to mirror the current system; however, in the development of the replacement system approximately 100 features that exist in the current system were deferred in the replacement system. NARIP funding will help in filling in those 100 features to the replacement JCCH. These absent features impact many functions of the automated workflow, including researching and applying dispositions and other criminal history information.

2) POC VCheck System: The VSP will use NARIP funds to contract a business analyst and IT Specialist to provide enhancements to the existing Firearms VCheck Java system. The VCheck system interfaces with the Virginia Computerized History System (CCH), the Virginia Criminal Information Network (VCIN), the Virginia Mental Health Database, NCIC, III and NICS. The system additions and modifications will assist the POC in providing improved product to the NICS and state counterparts, as well as assist in the development of long-range record improvement and strategy plans in the research, analysis, data quality auditing, and production that can set quantifiable improvement goals and monitor performance achievement. The main enhancement is to develop an additional component for the VCheck system to track receipt and status of applications for VSP issued concealed handgun permits.

3) Supreme Court of Virginia (SCV) Scan Mental Commitment and Protective Orders to VSP: SCV will use NARIP funds to build a database to store the mental commitment and protective orders from the general district Juvenile and Domestic Relations (J&DR) courts. The SCV will also research the ability to get orders from the circuit courts that already have the SCV case imaging system which is in many circuit courts already. The second part of this phase is to provide secure access to the mental commitment and protection order database. The SCV will need to retain a Database Administrator to build two image databases. One database will be for the general district court and the other for the J&DR courts. The two new imaging databases will be used to provide a centralized database to contain access to mental commitment and protective orders for the courts in addition to providing a secure site to replicate and store the existing order images.

The project’s goal will help eliminate the purchase of firearms by personnel with mental (civil) commitment orders or POs by being able to provide the stored signed court orders available on the same day issued for VSP.

(CA/NCF)