FY 2018 Washington State 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 2018 NCHIP award, the Washington State Patrol (WSP) will support five (5) projects:

Under Project 1, WSP will research arrests with open dispositions over one year old as they are not disseminated on non-law enforcement inquiries. This limitation creates a gap in reporting and reduces the effectiveness of policies created to prevent ineligible individuals from possessing firearms, obtaining professional licenses or gaining employment in positions they are restricted from holding.

Under Project 2, WSP will use funds to employ a full-time project position to coordinate and conduct statewide meetings with all stakeholders from each county, for the purposes of identifying local processes and to improve efficiencies of all stakeholders in an effort to increase the use of the PCN to enable dispositions to enter the Washington State Identification System.

Under Project 3, WSP will acquire and deploy Livescan workstations for nine (9) local jurisdictions. Additionally, WSP will convert manual and non-automated records to electronic records, ultimately, ensuring that records of all criminal events that start with an arrest are included in the state and federal databases. WSP will be responsible for contributing a 10% match to the project.

Under Project 4, WSP will pass through funds to the King County Sheriff’s Office to reduce the backlog of CPL Pistol and Pistol Transfer Applications. Currently, staff at the Sheriff’s Office Record Unit are not able to keep up with the number of requests and reporting requirements, including the processing of pistol transfers and concealed pistol licenses. Budgetary and Human Resource constraints preclude the Records Unit from employing sufficient personnel to accommodate all its obligations without incurring backlogs. Additional funding to support overtime is required to alleviate this problem.

Under Project 5, WSP will pass through funds to the City of Issaquah, City of Tukwila and Spokane County Prosecutors Office to update and automate case outcomes in their records and FBI’s Criminal History File through the implementation of improved criminal history record capture procedures. This improved procedure includes, but is not limited to, providing complete arrest reporting, researching of missing dispositions, provided that the captured data is subsequently included in relevant state and federal files, and timely updates. Additionally, through data analysis focused on the completeness of criminal history records, the capture of data regarding domestic violence misdemeanor convictions, and all NICS prohibiting factors, the City of Issaquah, City of Tukwila and Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office will ensure that these criteria are included in the process to establish more accurate and effective information quality controls.

(CA/NCF)