2016 Arizona NICS Records 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 the 2016 NARIP priority areas, the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC), will administer 3 projects: 1) Continuation of the NICS Task Force; 2) Fingerprint Card Imaging Project; and 3) Protection Order Project.

1) NICS Task Force: ACJC will use NCHIP funding to continue for the multi-agency planning and oversight with the NICS Record Improvement Task Force. The ACJC will contract a project management and system analyst to provide a strategic framework, though targeted recommendations, for executive and legislative actions to improve the State’s position in preventing prohibited possessors from obtaining firearms. This is a continuation project from previous NARIP awards. The next steps for the Task Force are to address the domestic violence Protection Order issue with getting Protection Orders into NCIC, addressing conditions of release when a firearm has been prohibited and sharing the information with law enforcement, and studying the required systems to send the information to NICS.

2) Fingerprint Card Imaging: NCHIP funds will be used to image over 283,000 fingerprint cards into the Arizona Criminal Justice Information System (ACJIS) which will subsequently report information to the NICS Index. The Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) has imaged over 4,000,000 paper records to electronic format; however, there are roughly 283,000 fingerprint cards that remain to be imaged for NICS related charges. Under the direction of a Fingerprint Identification Supervisor, the 283,000 fingerprint cards will be imaged by a scanning contractor and then subsequently checked by a fingerprint technician to ensure the image is clear, complete and accurate.

3) Misdemeanor Domestic Violence and Protection Order analysis: The ACJC will work with law enforcement agencies, courts and victim advocacy groups to assess operational processes and current issues these entities face regarding misdemeanor domestic violence and the orders of protection process. Activities surrounding this project includes: developing and adopting a project plan and detailed methodology for assessing the domestic violence and orders of protection statewide including conducting site visits to different jurisdiction based on volume of protection orders; develop a comprehensive understanding of current business practices and document gaps in the issuing and executing of protection order process across the state; and analyze the findings and provide recommendations and strategy for improving the reporting on misdemeanor domestic violence convictions and protection order protocols. (CA/NCF)