Kentucky State Police 2017 NARIP Initiative

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 this award, the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet will transfer funds to the Kentucky State Police (KSP) to improve the data quality of criminal history records and the reporting of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence records to NICS. KSP has no automated process in place to receive misdemeanor disposition data from the courts; therefore, the entire process is manual. Staff must manually add and update disposition data in Kentucky’s Computerized Criminal History (CCH), as well as search for additional documentation such as the citation or crime report. All the documents must be reviewed for relevant criteria pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9). Because this process is time consuming and labor intensive, KSP is seeking funds for overtime hours for staff to review data, update disposition information within the CCH repository and enter individuals into the NICS Index. The proposed project will result in increased misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence (MCDV) records between the state’s records management system, NICS, and KSP’s CCH repository. Ultimately, this project will increase the amount of criminal history information and NICS entries that are shared between Kentucky and the U.S. Department of Justice. (CA/NCF)