2019 National Criminal History Improvement Program (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.

The Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM) will use NCHIP funding for two projects to be assigned to agencies that have the sole development and implementing responsibility for that particular project. The OPM will provide technical and grant support and continue its role of coordinating the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) interrelationships on behalf of these projects. Under the 2019 NCHIP priority areas, the following projects will be conducted:

1) Firearm Safety Warrants: The Judicial Branch will hire consultants to assist with reprogramming the Protection Order Registry Adjudication Reporting Module (POR/ARM). The reprogramming will increase the number of court records in NICS and improve the timeliness of the NICS entries. Project activities include 1) manually processing firearm safety warrants which consists of reviewing records previously created and enter the information into POR/ARM in addition to any new applications for firearm safety warrants; 2) modify the POR/ARM so that firearm safety warrant information can be electronically archived and disseminated. Project personnel will work to identify project objectives, outcomes, and court processes in order to develop programming that will permit POR/ARM to make firearm safety warrants available to NICS; 3) update the POR/ARM to meet NICS guidelines; 4) converting pre-existing records to the new format for entry in POR/ARM and NICS; and 5) review the accuracy and completeness of NICS entries across all disqualifying categories.

2) CCH and AFIS Replacement: The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) will use NCHIP funds to continue to support its CCH and AFIS replacement projects with resources dedicated to the testing, interface development, staff training, project management, database conversion, and independent verification and validation of project deliverables. The resources are necessary to ensure the success of its comprehensive strategy to modernize the State Police Bureau of Identification (SPBI) criminal history repository. DESPP’s FY17 NCHIP award resulted in the development and approval of a plan delivering an integrated Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS) and CCH solution through a single vendor cloud hosted platform. DESPP’s FY18 NCHIP award continued with efforts to contract and implement the testing and development of the conversion to the replacement system. Activities for the project include: replacing CT’s criminal history system; clear suspended and paper records; upgrading out-of-date mission critical AFIS to meet all NGI capabilities; developing applicant front-end system for all applicant flows; outsourcing fingerprinting solution that meets all CHRI applicant needs; and developing payment processing system. The CCH and AFIS replacement project addresses a number of 2019 NCHIP priority areas including updating and automating case outcomes from courts and prosecutors in state records and federal databases such as III, NCIC and the NICS Indices.

(CA/NCF)