FY 2018 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 the 2018 NARIP priority areas, the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC), will administer 3 projects: 1) Continuation of the NICS Task Force and Project Management; 2) Develop an Automated System for Conditions of Release Project; and 3) Update AZ Criminal History Records Project.

1) NICS Task Force and Project Management ($479,160): ACJC will use NARIP funding to continue 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, through 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 continue efforts to address procedural, technological, privacy areas, and policy issues surrounding submission, access, and the reporting of NICS information.

2) Develop an Automated System for Conditions of Release: ACJC will work with the AZ Administrative Office of the Courts (AZAOC) to develop a comprehensive integrated system to automate Conditions of Release once they have been issued by the court. The conditions that contain a prohibition of a firearm will be transmitted to NICS and local law enforcement. Steps to complete the automation systems include: developing a repository for capturing court records when a condition of release has been ordered that prohibits a firearm or no contact; transmitting to NICS when a condition of release is ordered that prohibits a firearm; developing an interface so law enforcement agencies will have access to records when a condition of release has been ordered; developing an interface between AZ Department of Public Safety’s (AZDPS) message switch to handle requests and responses; and providing training and technical assistance.

3) Update AZ Criminal History Records: The AZDPS is the Central State Repository (CSR). The CSR will create and process gap-fill arrests for approximately 5,000 AZ criminal history records. The CSR will offer overtime to qualified staff member to research records, generate disposition reports for the AZ courts, create gap-filler arrests, and update the criminal history record. CSR staff will research the pending Superior Court cases for which the Clerks of the Court have never received a disposition report and any additional cases supplied by any AZ court or identified by CSR staff. Further steps include identifying or creating an associated arrest and provide the courts with a final disposition report to complete and forward back to CSR for entry into the AZ CCH file.

(CA/NCF)