FY 2021 National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP)

Under this award, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) will continue to improve the quality, completeness, and accessibility of criminal history data at the state and national levels. ALEA plans to partner with state and local courts and law enforcement agencies to continue its efforts to improve the state’s criminal offender records. Alabama has gone through a number of organizational and administrative changes in the past four years that have posed challenges and opportunities related to the ongoing operations for criminal justice information within the state. This project proposal aims to help address some of the challenges, plus develop and implement new processes to take advantage of new opportunities. ALEA does not currently place an emphasis on mobile technology related to criminal history improvement. ALEA is seeking funds to conduct a pilot project on leveraging mobile technology, to include tablets and 5G wireless technology, by researching how such technology can be used, developing applications to take advantage of the mobile environment, and integrating the data collection process into its current CJIS information environment. In the FY2020 NCHIP grant, ALEA was awarded monies to implement an Offender Verification pilot project in a state criminal court. ALEA plans to use funds from this year’s program to extend the pilot project by implementing offender verification capability within a municipal court system to allow instant update of the criminal history record. The pilot should successfully identify at least 10 defendants per week for a 12-week pilot period. In April 2021, the governor signed into law the requirement for ALEA to create a firearm prohibited person database. Funds will be used to develop and implement a statewide system that analyzes criminal justice databases to determine if a person is associated with a prohibitor for receiving a pistol permit or possessing a firearm. The database would be established to comply with the Gun Control Act (18 U.S.C. § 922), as amended by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (P.L. 10-159) and the Alabama Uniform Concealed Carry Permit Act.