Nebraska State Patrol FY 20 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 FY 20 NCHIP project, the Nebraska State Patrol will use funds to improve the reporting of dispositions and of persons prohibited from possessing firearms for mental health reasons, and increase the number and quality of records available to the National Criminal Instant Background Check System (NICS), Next Generation Identification (NGI), and the Interstate Identification Index (III). To accomplish these objective the NSP will further development of the advanced ad hoc reporting system within the Patrol Criminal History (PCH) to allow authorized users access to needed reports in a timely manner and upgrading the Law Enforcement Message Switch (LEMS) technology. The Applications Developer to conduct these upgrades is integral to the planning, launching, troubleshooting, and ongoing maintenance of these improvements. Further, the NSP will continue with the criminal history records Base and Expansion Projects. This project will be done by two (2) Records Technicians updating historical records in conjunction with The Inquiries Screening project where NSP continues the research of pre-2000 records with missing dispositions. Continuing from FY2019 NCHIP, the Dupcheck (duplicate check) and AFIS-PCH Sync Projects will determine inconsistencies between the two systems and require research and corrections by Fingerprint Technicians. Both projects will increase accuracy in the AFIS and PCH systems. Additionally, NSP will continue the Quality Assurance Improvement Program (QAIP) staff where each of Nebraska’s 93 counties are being assessed every two-three years, resulting in more cohesive procedures to increase the timeliness, accuracy, and completeness of criminal history records. NSP will also convert arrest charges based on a Statute Based Coding system to improve the consistency of information reported statewide. This collaborative effort involves the NSP, Administrative Office of the Courts, Nebraska Crime Commission, and local criminal justice agencies. Further, NSP will add a new PCH/JUSTICE Coordinator position that is responsible for the continued development of the interface between the JUSTICE case management system and PCH. The expected impact of this position is ultimately the development of a more frequent and complete communication of court information via JUSTICE to PCH. In collaboration with Nebraska’s Administrative Office of the Courts, the NSP will continue a project originally funded under the NCHIP 19 award to complete programming that will modernize and streamline the JUSTICE system. Due to ongoing COVID restrictions, the NSP does not anticipate attending the SEARCH Conference or Compact Council meetings, and will reduce the quantity of in-person QAIP visits by half. In addition, due to the complex nature of criminal history records and not currently having an interested applicant in the QAIP Program Manager position, the NSP will first hire additional Auditors to learn the intricacies of the program, in the hopes to have an interested applicant in the Program Manager position next year.