Indiana NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP)

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 Indiana Criminal Justice Institute plans to transfer funds to the Indiana State Police (ISP) to: 1) continue the deployment of Odyssey, Indiana’s court case management system, to additional criminal courts throughout the state; and, 2) implement interfaces between INPCMS- the Prosecutor’s case management system and Odyssey, as well as Odyssey and CHRIS-the State criminal history repository. The Trial Court Technology (TCT) Group, formerly known as the Judicial Technology and Automation Committee (JTAC), of the Indiana Supreme Court’s Division of State Court Administration will lead the deployment of Odyssey to additional criminal courts. TCT will work with users to ensure that the Odyssey to INcite’s Mental Health Adjudication Reporting application is working successfully. This will eliminate duplicate data entry for court staff and will ensure that the information is sent to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in a timely manner. TCT will continue to compare mental health commitments from courts with the information courts are reporting through INcite to NICS. In addition, TCT will reach out to the Department of Corrections (DOC) to compare and upload individuals currently held at DOC who have a qualifying court determination in a criminal case. All of these activities will improve the accuracy and completeness of records in the exchange of criminal case information. Funds will also be used to cover the staff responsible for coordinating and administering projects under this grant.

CA/NCF