FY 2019 NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP)

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 2019 NARIP priority areas, the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC), will administer 3 projects: 1) Continuation of the NICS Task Force and Project Management; 2) Implement Orders of Protection Interface; and 3) Update AZ Criminal History Records Project.

1) NICS Task Force and Project Management: 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) Implement Orders of Protection Interface: ACJC will use NARIP funds to contract services to develop an interface for law enforcement agencies to implement a NIEM conformant data exchange with the Arizona Orders of Protection/Injunction Against Harassment (OP/IAH) system through their Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) or Records Management System (RMS). Currently, there is an average of 10 days to complete an OP/IAH entry into NCIC. The implementation of an interface will automate the reporting of OP/IAH information which will improve the processing of information to NCIC and, where applicable, to NICS.

3) Update AZ Criminal History Records: The AZDPS is the Central State Repository (CSR) for the state. 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)