Criminal History System Enhancement and Livescan Replacement

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 2019 NCHIP priority 1 area of updating and automating case outcomes in state records and the FBI Criminal History File, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), through the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) will manage two projects: 1) CHS Enhancement and Support; and 2) Livescan replacement project.

Criminal History System (CHS) Enhancements: Minnesota recently deployed the new CHS replacement system. The DPS was awarded NCHIP funds in 2015 to automate criminal history records to make them more readily available. In addition, 2016 NCHIP funds were used to add the ability to query III information through the CHS user interface. With 2017 NCHIP funds, the DPS added 3 more features to the CCH: 1) Court Case Notifications; 2) eCharging; and 3) Query III integration. With 2018 NCHIP funds, the DPS added 5 more enhancements to the CHS, which includes: 1) Additional Court Notifications; 2) Operations and Maintenance; 3) MarkLogic Software Licensing and Maintenance; 4) Storage Area Network Expansion; and 5) Virtual Tape Library Replacement. For 2019 NCHIP funds, the DPS will add 4 more enhancements: 1) FBI Correlation to compare records with MN criminal history records; 2) Identify MN’s CHR that do not currently contain an FBI UCN; 3) develop an interface for System Health and Performance monitoring; and 4) Firearms Flag Improvement to flag offenses punishable by imprisonment for over one year. These enhancements will help further MN’s commitment to complete and accurate criminal history records for use by criminal justice and non-criminal justice partners locally and nationally.

Livescan Replacement: BCA will replace 20 Livescan devices which are aged and at the end of their lifespan. These devices reside in criminal justice agencies throughout the state and are used for capturing criminal bookings, to include correctional intake and offender supervision. In September 2014, the BCA was notified by the current Livescan vendor that of their current 180 Livescan devices throughout the state, 160 are considered aged and at “end of life” as of March 2016. The BCA has taken a phased approach to replace the 160 “end of life” Livescans. In 2015, the BCA received NCHIP funds to replace 28 Livescans; in 2016 received NCHIP funds to replace an additional 32 Livescans (4 more through the state match); and then in 2017 received NCHIP funds to replace another 21 Livescans.

The state currently receives 99% of its criminal submission electronically through the use of Livescans. These submissions are subsequently forwarded to the FBI’s Next Generation Identification System (NGI) within hours of the booking event. BCA will purchase 5 Livescan devices with state matching funds for a total of 25 replacement Livescans.

(CA/NCF)