2015 National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP)

The goal of the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) is to improve the Nation's safety and security by enhancing the quality, completeness, and accessibility of criminal history record information and by insuring the nationwide implementation of criminal justice and noncriminal justice background check systems. BJS provides direct financial and technical assistance to the states to improve criminal history and other related records and to build their infrastructure to connect to national record check systems both to supply information and to conduct the requisite checks.

The four NCHIP projects will be carried out by the State of Connecticut and assigned to agencies that have the sole development and implementing responsibility for that particular project, in this case, the Judicial Branch (JB). The Office of Policy and Management (OPM) will provide technical and grant support and continue its role of coordinating the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) interrelationships on behalf of these projects. Under the 2015 NCHIP priority areas, the following projects will be conducted:

1) Protection Order Registry (POR): The JB has implemented a statewide POR for all civil and criminal orders of protection issued in cases involving family violence. As soon as the local court clerk activates or deactivates an order in the registry, the registry automatically updates the state repository protection order file, and then automatically updates the national protection order file (NPOF). The Registry is now being expanded with assistance under the 2014 NCHIP funds to accommodate civil protection orders in sexual assault and stalking cases. The JB is now starting to assess ways in which the civil order process can be more efficient and more complete.

2) Criminal Disposition Module: The 2014 NCHIP fund activities began the third phase of this project with the development of a web-based user interface for criminal court clerks to record and disseminate convictions, mental health adjudications, and other dispositions. The JB will implement the new computer system, and to demonstrate that the Branch is positioned to share new disposition data with the state's criminal history repository and other external organizations. In addition, they will continue making disposition records available for the state and federal firearms background investigations while the computer implementation is underway. The project will increase the number of mental health disqualification records in the NICS, increase the number of criminal disqualification records available to NICS, and improve the statewide automation of many critical disposition functions related to NICS.

3) Probate Case Management System: The Probate Court Administrator (PCA) will continue to improve the completeness, timeliness, automation, and transmittal of relevant Probate Court records to state and federal systems so that these records are accessible to NICS for use in completing firearms eligibility determinations.

4) CCH Data Cleansing/Conversion: The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) will develop database cleansing and conversion programs and ongoing project management resources to ensure the success of its comprehensive strategy to modernize the State Police Bureau of Identification's (SPBI) criminal history repository. The Bureau of Identification is made up of the Criminal Records Unit and the Fingerprinting Unit. These units are responsible for the collection, maintenance and dissemination of fingerprint supported criminal history throughout the state and in participation with NCIC.

CA/NCF