FY 2017 Guam Criminal History Improvement Project

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, the Judiciary of Guam (Judiciary) will use funds to conduct three (3) activities – 1) Upgrade AFIS Hardware and Software, 2) Backlog of Court Disposition and Criminal History Records, and 3) Updating Guam Police Department RMS database with State Identification Numbers (SID) and FBI number.

Under the upgrade AFIS hardware and software project, the Judiciary computers are beginning to show their age by the decrease in speed and lack of performance. Upgrades are needed to replace the old equipment and keep pace with the ever increasing demand for data input into the AFIS. Electronic data has replaced paper files as the primary form of document retention and retrieval. New and reliable equipment is needed to keep pace with this demand.

Under the Backlog of Court Disposition and Criminal History Records project, the Judiciary has a large volume of un-entered cases going back several decades. In order to protect these paper records from decay, and to ensure that all case data is digitized for easy access and are catalogued and entered into the Judiciary’s Case Management System (CMS), the Judiciary of Guam needs to increase the capacity of its NCIC Unit. This will ensure that there are sufficient personnel to perform this vital task of inputting backlogged case files entered into the CMS.

Under Updating Guam Police Department RMS database with State Identification Numbers (SID), FBI numbers and firearm registration data project, the Judiciary will enter SIDs, FBI numbers and firearms registration data into the Guam Police Department’s Law Enforcement Records Management System (LERMS). The Judiciary is working diligently to becoming Interstate Identification Index (III) compliant and, to accomplish this, Guam must first have a system in which they have and can assign SID and FBI numbers to their criminal history records. Currently, the Judiciary is having to manually input and verify the records but, in conjunction with efforts such as Activity 1, the Judiciary is trying to improve the systems and processes that will provide efficiency and accessibility. The Judiciary will be responsible for contributing a 10% match under the 2017 NCHIP grant.

(CA/NCF)