Helping to improve criminal recordkeeping

Jun 1, 2001 12:00 PM

The U.S. Justice Department has set aside $44 million in direct awards and technical assistance to help states improve the quality and accessibility of criminal history records.

The funds will help states to continue building the infrastructure that supports instant background checks for firearms sales and to develop and enhance sex offender registry systems.

The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has just released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 application for funding through the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP).

The goal of NCHIP is to improve the nation's public safety by enhancing and upgrading the nation's criminal history records. These funds will allow continued development of states' automated criminal record systems, as well as support partnerships among federal, state and local law enforcement and government agencies to address problems of stalking, domestic violence and sexual assault against children.

NCHIP funds can be used by states for several clearly defined areas including:

• to develop and enhance automated adult and juvenile criminal history records;

• to implement and upgrade automated fingerprint identification systems;

• to develop systems that facilitate full participation in the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS); and

• to support development of accurate and complete state sex offender identification and registration systems and to establish domestic violence offender identification and information systems.

The NCHIP application should be submitted by an agency designated by each Governor.

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