FY 2018 NICS Act Record Improvement Program

The NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, P. L. 110-180 ("NIAA"), was initially signed into law by the President on January 8, 2008 (reauthorized by Title VI of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, P.L. 115-141). The NIAA 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 NIAA authorizes grants to be made in a manner consistent with the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP).

Under the FY 2018 award, the Idaho State Police (ISP) will use funds to research missing dispositions. Idaho has missing dispositions in the state criminal history file maintained by the ISP's Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI). The state criminal history repository receives electronic dispositions from the courts system. There are records in the repository without dispositions. Some of those dispositions are in the courts’ system and some of these arrests were declined to be prosecuted but no indication as such was sent to the criminal history repository, leaving a naked arrest that will never be disposed by the court. Some of the dispositions come from the court without the transaction control number (TCN) that links them to the corresponding arrest record. Without this critical information, the disposition is unable to connect properly and is placed in a “hold file.” Matching these dispositions becomes a manual process for a limited staff who are already working several different projects.

(CA/NCF)