Arizona FY2012 NICS Record Improvement Program

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 Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) will use funds to complete tasks associated with the following projects: 1) subaward funds to the Arizona Department of Public Safety to research Maricopa Superior Court felony court cases for which the Clerk of Court has not received a final disposition report for felony convictions, drug arrests and convictions, and MCDV convictions. It is anticipated that final disposition forms will be created for 30,600 Superior Court cases for subsequent updating in III; 2) support consultant services to gather critical information on state systems and define the requirements, functional specifications, and technical design recommendations for NIEM compliant data exchanges; 3) purchase source software and cover programming expenses to implement data exchanges from booking agencies to the prosecutors for three counties to enable the implementation of NIEM-based data exchanges to share defendant and charging information to ensure full-charge disposition tracking from booking through court adjudication; 4) support project management services for the Arizona NICS Record Improvement Initiative to carry out the goals and objectives of the state's NICS Record Improvement Strategic Plan; 5) support the continuation of quarterly NICS Task Force meetings; 6) support ACJC staff time to research and analyze the state's criminal history records to help shape and inform the NICS Task Force priorities and needs; and 7) support administrative costs for ACJC staff to administer, monitor, and report subgrantee activities.

CA/NCF