MN FY 2017 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.

Under the 2017 NCHIP priority 1 area of updating and automating case outcomes in state records and the FBI Criminal History File, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), through the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) will manage two projects: 1) enhancements to the Criminal History System (CHS); and 2) Livescan replacement project.

Minnesota is in the process of developing a replacement of the state criminal history system which is expected to be deployed in early-2018. The DPS was awarded NCHIP funds in 2015 to automate criminal history records to make them more readily available. In addition, 2016 NCHIP funds were used to add the ability to query the Interstate Identification Index (III) information through the CHS user interface. With 2017 NCHIP funds, the DPS will now add the following new features to the CHS: 1) Court Case Notifications which are received once charge information is entered in the MN Court Information System (MNCIS). Without these notifications, complete charges are not displayed on a criminal history record until a disposition is received from MNCIS. 2) eCharging which will notify CHS when prosecutors decline to prosecute or divert a charge, thereby allowing MN to provide a more accurate criminal history record. 3) Query criminal history III integration to analyze and develop the process to search III by name and date of birth. These enhancements will help further MN’s commitment to complete and accurate criminal history records for use by criminal justice and non-criminal justice partners locally and nationally.

Livescan Replacement: BCA will replace 21 Livescan fingerprint devices that are at the end of their lifespan. These devices reside in criminal justice agencies throughout the state and are used for capturing criminal bookings, to include correctional intake and offender supervision. In September 2014, the BCA was notified by the current Livescan vendor that of the current 180 Livescan devices throughout the state, 160 are considered aged and at “end of life” as of March 2016. The BCA has taken a phased approach to replace the 160 “end of life” Livescans. In 2015, the BCA received NCHIP funds to replace 28 Livescans and then in 2016 received NCHIP funds to replace an additional 32 Livescans (4 more through the state match). The state currently receives 99% of its criminal submission electronically through the use of Livescans. These submissions are subsequently forwarded to the FBI’s Next Generation Identification System (NGI) within hours of the booking event. In addition, BCA will purchase 3 Livescan machines with state matching funds for a total of 24 replacement Livescans. BCA plans to create a deployment schedule, taking into consideration the highest risk for failure, and deploy all 24 Livescans by March 2018. (CA/NCF)