FY 2021 MS DPS NCHIP Grant

Program Narrative

Section A:  Background and Identification of Needs

  The Mississippi Department of Public Safety (MDPS), the parent agency of the Mississippi Criminal Information Center (MCIC), is the administrator for criminal history improvement programs for the State of Mississippi.  The MCIC is Mississippi’s primary conduit for information exchange with the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ (FBI) National Criminal Information Center (NCIC) system, as well as for other national data exchanges and statewide law enforcement information exchange within Mississippi.

Accomplishments:

  Over the past several years, under the auspices of the MDPS-MCIC, the State of Mississippi has built a state-of-the-art criminal records system.  This system, the Mississippi Criminal History System (MCHS) was created using funding from federal grants including National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) funds, Edward Byrne Memorial grant funds, and funds appropriated by the State.  These funds have provided the core capabilities of a sophisticated criminal records management system that includes an Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), the state message switch for routing of messages including NCIC/NLETS messages, the state NCIC Terminal Application Server, the MCHS repository, automatic processing of Interstate Identification Index (III) support, a transaction archive and a robust sex offender registry.  These systems and components were constructed using best practices in the areas of computing hardware, software, and open interface standards.

  The MCIC continues to employ proven strategies in design, implementation, and deployment improvements.  Today, because of previous NCHIP funding, Mississippi’s NCIC system is centered around the MCHS repository based on open standards hardware and software.  The MCIC has also been able to make broad improvements to its systems and quality of data because of previous NCHIP funding, state funding, and other federal grant resources.  These improvements include:

A developed process for entry and verification of Interstate Identification Index (III) entries with participating local law enforcement agencies within the State of Mississippi.  This is a continuous effort by the Mississippi Justice Information Center (MJIC) to improve the timeliness and quality of submissions and active records on the III file;
Mississippi participates in NICS instant background checks with criminal data.  The State of Mississippi passed legislation in March 2013 requiring MDPS to report the mental health dispositions that would disqualify a candidate from receiving a firearms permit to NICS/FBI.  Funding solicitation was submitted and received under the Improving the Completeness of Firearm Background Checks through Enhanced State Data Sharing FY 2013 Competitive Grant Announcement.  MDPS has implemented a web-based application that allows court personnel to enter the disqualifying mental health adjudication at the time judgment is rendered.  MDPS continues to work with courts to improve the timeliness of submitting NICS exclusion information.
MCIC continues to work with district attorneys and courts to implement submission of final case dispositions with all of Mississippi’s courts.
Mississippi continues to upgrade and enhance its Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) and is finalizing efforts to complete a major upgrade of the IAFIS solution that will increase the database capacity for fingerprint and  transaction volume along with accuracy and workflow enhancements that meet the latest technology features available for these type systems;
MCIC personnel, in conjunction with contractors, actively review systems data by probing and mining for errors and omissions in the type and quality of data.
The MCIC continues to collaborate with the State’s courts to improve final disposition submissions to the repository.
The MCIC and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) jointly operate a statewide registry of uniform domestic violence reporting.  The State of Mississippi has a state repository for protection order tracking system that interfaces to the FBI’s national protection order file.

Progress on Record Improvement Goals:

  The MDPS/MCIC continues to work with the State Attorney General’s Office of Domestic Violence and the Administrative Office of Courts as the protection order tracking system and the ability to forward protection orders to the national system were implemented. 

  Current Status in Specific Subject Areas:

Disposition available to III:  Mississippi participates in sending case dispositions to the FBI via the III ‘DSP’ message key.  The Mississippi Criminal History System (MCHS) vendor has modified the System’s process that will allow MS to take temporary ownership of the record and update the disposition in IAFIS.  With the modified process in place, a preexisting backlog of rejected DSP messages that accumulated since going live has been updated and sent to the FBI. 

  Upon receiving notification from the FBI that the State of Mississippi’s disposition reporting rate was low, the MS Criminal Information Center’s (MCIC) management team communicated with the court systems within the State requesting disposition information that has not been sent to MCIC for processing.  MCIC has started receiving much of the missing disposition information.  Most of the correspondence is being performed through paper exchange, mainly mailing and faxing with posting by MCIC records technicians. 

  The MCIC management team will continue to work with court personnel to find ways to improve the means of disposition submission processing.

NICS Index and mental health record availability:  Previous Mississippi laws prohibited the implementation of mental health record checks in NICS; therefore the State had no statewide database of adjudicated mental health records.  The State of Mississippi passed legislation in March 2013 allowing the MDPS to make available the mental health dispositions that would disqualify a candidate from receiving a firearms or firearm permits to NICS/FBI.  Funding solicitation was submitted and received under the Improving the Completeness of Firearm Background Checks through Enhanced State Data Sharing FY 2013 Competitive Grant Announcement.  MDPS has implemented a web-based application that allows court personnel to enter the disqualifying mental health adjudication at the time judgment is rendered.
 Protection Order Files:  The MCIC has worked with the State Attorney General’s Office of Domestic Violence and has implemented a comprehensive protection order tracking system provided by 2008 SDVRIP grant funding, for development of an in-state protection order registry system that forwards protection orders to the national system. 
Warrants/wanted person records:  The MCIC does submit information for inclusion in the FBI’s NCIC Wanted Persons File. 

  While the MDPS/MCIC has been able to improve its ability to employ proven strategies in the design, implementation, and deployment of improvements in its criminal information system since inception; the agency finds the need for the following areas of interest to:

Contract with Computer Projects of Illinois, Inc. (CPI) to provide an upgrade to the configurator from 6.5 – 7.5 as part of a required prerequisite for the XML N3G upgrade for system upgrade to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety’s (MDPS) State Message Switch.  
Contract with Computer Projects of Illinois, Inc. (CPI) implement the Datamaxx Session Modifications to modify the server to process configuration changes to the DAC stations.
Contract with CPI to implement DQ (Driver License Query)/KQ (Driver History Query) Response to configure the two-message key.

Many improvements made to the State’s criminal history system have been due, in part, to a combination of previous NCHIP grants, as well as other federal and state funding.  Without such funding, the agency cannot financially undertake projects of this magnitude.  At the present time, no legislative appropriations are available to the agency to continue these types of projects.  Previous NCHIP funding obtained by MDPS has all been obligated, therefore, external resources such as the FY2021 NCHIP funding is sought to assist the MDPS in fulfilling its commitment to ongoing improvement of Mississippi’s criminal history system.  The goal of the MDPS is to enhance the State’s criminal history system to improve data quality, data exchange processes and data availability to national, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

Section B:  Project Design and Implementation:  Description of tasks to be funded under NCHIP

  The Mississippi Department of Public Safety (MDPS) requests BJS FY 2021 National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) funding for the purpose of obtaining needed supplemental personnel and equipment that will enable the agency to:

Contract with Computer Projects of Illinois, Inc. (CPI) to provide a application system upgrade to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety’s (MDPS) State Message Switch.

Contract with CPI to provide an application system upgrade to the configurator from 6.7 to 7.5 as part of the MDPS’ State Message Switch. ($273,050.00):    MDPS is requesting funding to contract with CPI to provide an application system upgrade to the configurator from 6.5 to 7.5 as part of the MDPS’ State Message Switch upgrade, which is a prerequisite for upgrading the message switch with XML N3G. CPI will provide National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) configurations along with Message Key transformation of all the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) keys and apply them to all inbound and outbound NCIC messages.

    Criminal background checks performed through MCIC are required for occupations such as teachers, bankers, casino workers, physicians, pharmacists, therapist, nurses and other health care workers plus a range of other authorized professions.  MCIC also allows background checks to be performed on individuals applying for gun permits or purchasing weapons to prevent candidates with certain mental health adjudications from attaining a firearm permit. In all these cases it is critically important that dispositions be available to those evaluating applicant background checks to ensure citizens are not disallowed opportunities based on missing information.  MCIC is currently working CPI to become compliant with the Nlets mandate to sunset legacy, non-standard dot delimited text formats. Having CPI to upgrade the application system would be the final piece for the XML project.  This would bring the State to full compliance with the Nlets mandate is dependent on the in-state repositories or endpoints and is requiring additional work from CPI, the State, and/or third-party.

Contract with Computer Projects of Illinois, Inc. (CPI) implement the Datamaxx Session Modifications to modify the server to process configuration changes to the DAC stations. ($20,000).

MDPS is requesting funding to contract with CPI to implement the Datamaxx Session Modifications project for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. CPI will CPI will modify the DMPP-2020 Interface code to detect the addition or modification of associated Device Address Code (“DAC”) stations associated with a server class station using the interface. This change will add logic that will allow DAC stations to be added or removed without the need for the Customer to set the servers down to recognize those changes.

CPI will perform the following tasks and/or services to implement the solution: Modify the Datamaxx Server (“DMXSRV”) interface code to process configuration changes to DAC stations that have been added or deleted from an already logged on Server (“SRVR”) class station controlled by the DMXSRV interface i.e. automatically update the list of DAC stations associated with an existing SRVR.

Contract with CPI to implement DQ (Driver License Query)/KQ (Driver History Query) Response to configure the two-message key. ($16,950.00)

MDPS is requesting funding to contract with CPI to implement the driver license query and the driver history query which will configure Driver’s License Query (“DQX”) and Driver History Query (“KQX”) MKE ascopies of the current Driver’s License Query (“DQ”) and Driver History Query (“KQ”) Remove all file routes from DQX and KQX except for the “DMVWS” file route Modify OpenFox Message Switch processing for Driver’s License Response (“DR”) and Driver History Response (“KR”).

 Priority Areas for Grant Funding

  The Mississippi Department of Public Safety (MDPS) requests that the full amount of funding indicated in the budget section of this grant application be considered and identifies the following priority areas for grant funding:

Project Activity:

Priority Area for Grant Funding:

Contract with Computer Projects of Illinois, Inc. (CPI) to provide application system upgrade.

To implement an upgrade to the configurator from 6.5 to 7.5

Contract with Computer Projects of Illinois, Inc. (CPI) implement the Datamaxx Session Modifications

To modify the DMPP-2020 Interface code to detect the addition or modification of associated Device Address Code (“DAC”)

Contract with CPI to implement DQ (Driver License Query)/KQ (Driver History Query) Response

To implement the driver license query and the driver history query which will configure Driver’s License Query (“DQX”) and Driver History Query (“KQX”)

 

  If funds are awarded, the aforementioned projects would assist in the priority areas of grant funding by assisting MDPS in better meeting disposition accuracy, timeliness and reporting requirements to criminal justice and law enforcement agencies on local, state and federal levels.

Contractual:  The MCIC Interim Director, MCIC Interim Deputy Director, Management Information Systems (MIS) Director, and MCIC Information Technology Project Manager will be responsible for monitoring the application system upgrade to carry out the project process.  This group will oversee, concurrently and at different intervals, the enhancement of the project being undertaken with Computer Projects of Illinois, Inc. (CPI).

Courts:  MDPS is not requesting funding for collaborative efforts with the Administrative Office of Courts to enhance the Mississippi Criminal Information System at this time.  The project proposed for funding will include supplemental personnel to improve the accuracy and timeliness of dispositions posted to arrest records.  The improvements will be seamless to the courts.  The Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) is aware of MDPS/MCIC’s efforts.  For this purpose, the AOC’s letter officially declining participation is provided as an attachment to this grant application.

Section C:  Capabilities and Competencies - Coordination

  The Mississippi Office of Homeland Security (MOHS) is a subdivision of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.  The MOHS has responsibility for providing intelligence information to the state's law enforcement and emergency management agencies as well as to other state and federal agencies, especially during crisis situations.  The MCIC’s resources, as well as arrest and disposition information will be available to MOHS and in turn to local, state, and federal agencies.

  Though the aforementioned project submitted for funding do not directly affect the court systems, MDPS will continue to work cooperatively with the Mississippi Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) to identify any areas of improvement as well as new, innovative ways of information sharing.  In addition, as the State's lead law enforcement agency, the MDPS will be working with other state law enforcement agencies, county sheriff offices, and municipal police departments.  These stakeholders' needs will be taken into consideration in the design of the project.

  Activities detailed for the 2021 NCHIP program will be coordinated with current and previous records improvement initiatives.  The goal of the MCIC is to provide a single source of information for all levels of law enforcement and justice systems both within the state and through NCIC/NLETS to other state and national criminal justice agencies.  An attachment to this application includes a memo submitted to the State's Technology Point-of-Contact (POC) detailing our plans for the 2021NCHIP project.

Unexpended funds:  Previously awarded a grant modification for NCHIP 2018 funded projects are in process.  The State of Mississippi was awarded $1,308,382.00 in federal funds to complete the outlined projects.  The NCHIP 2018 projects are in the procurement phases but there are a few issues delaying the projects.

Purchased equipment to better manage the support and security of the Mississippi Criminal Information Center network.

The MDPS has purchased and installed in a redundant configuration that will allow automatic, unattended failover if one of the units goes offline for any reason.  The Check Point devices are managed through a standard web interface and have greatly enhanced logging for security monitoring and compliance.  The firewalls are used by law enforcement agencies to connect to MDPS’s network to access and perform NCIC/Nlets transaction queries.  NCIC and Nlets transactions are performed when law enforcement personnel are obtaining criminal history information, performing tenprint checks, and performing driver’s license and vehicle tag inquiries as well as a variety of other transactions.  The firewalls are also used by the Mississippi Criminal Information Center’s (MCIC) technical support team for VPN connection when supporting, monitoring, and troubleshooting issues with the MCIC network after normal business hours, weekends, and holidays.

Upgrade the existing AFIS system

The project for upgrading the existing AFIS system is currently in progress.  The Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) is a complex biometric identification system that provides automated computerized categorization of fingerprint information for identification (or exclusion) of individuals with criminal records.  This system is at the core of information stored at the state’s Criminal Information Center where records are maintained of more than 300,000 criminals and millions of arrest records.  The current AFIS has been in place since 2008 without any upgrades or hardware replacements. 

Legacy AFIS Risk Mitigation Services

Services were completed to perform upgrades to the legacy AFIST to mitigate the risk of system outages due to equipment failures.  The mitigation services were a success during the legacy hardware replacement.

Support of MCHS to Upgraded AFIS Interface

Support of the MCHS during the series of actions with the AFIS interface upgrade continues.  The contract with PnL Associates, LLC to provide Mississippi Criminal History System (MCHS) supplemental support services during the replacement of AFIS.

Purchase AFIS Hardware components for Risk Mitigation 

Hardware was purchased and installed to replace the legacy hardware on the AFIS system.  The core hardware is comprised of multi-hardware components.  The legacy hardware had exceeded its life expectancy and the probability of hardware failure.  The replacement of the hardware reduced the risk of a total loss of the State’s AFIS system.

Compatibility with other systems:  The proposed project for the existing MCIC systems will not pose a compatibility issue with any existing systems that interact, feed, or receive information from NCIC, NICS or IAFIS.  The Mississippi Criminal Information Center’s (MCIC) goal is to maintain 100% compatibility with these systems.  The agency continues to make every effort to maintain compatibility when issues arise.

  Though the previously mentioned projects would greatly benefit the State of Mississippi, they would also benefit the Federal system as well.

Section D:  Plan for collecting the data required for this solicitation’s performance measures

  The Mississippi Department of Public Safety (MDPS) understands that specific information may be required by BJS during the submission of the agency’s progress reports.  The MDPS/MCIC will provide information to indicate:

Improvement in number of arrests containing disposition information.  This information will be gathered from the MS Criminal History System statistical page on the internal system from the “MCHS Criminal History Content Snapshot”.  The performance measure will be improved in the percentage of arrest that contain a disposition from period to period.  A copy of the spreadsheet that will be used to report the measure is included in the submission package. This will be updated and included with each progress report.  These totals will be used to compute the number of dispositions posted per man-hour of contractor time.  MCIC has set a target of an average of four (4) dispositions processed per man-hour during each reporting period.

 
 

Budget Detail Worksheet - submitted in separate attachment

 

Budget Narrative - submitted in separate attachment

 

Match – submitted in budget narrative document

 

Indirect Cost Rate - not applicable

 

Tribal Authorizing Resolution - not applicable

 

Financial Management and System of Internal Controls Questionnaire – submitted in separate attachment

 

Additional Attachments

Project Timeline - submitted in separate attachment

 

Letters of Support:

 

The Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) letter officially declining participation – submitted in separate attachment
Memo to the State’s Technology Point-of-Contact detailing our plans MDPS’ plans for 2021 NCHIP project– submitted in separate attachment

Applicant Disclosure of Pending Applications – submitted in separate attachment
Applicant Disclosure of High-Risk Status – not applicable