Under this award, the montana board of crime control (mbcc) requests funds to improve montanas criminal history data systems and exchanges

This $411,304 Cooperative Agreement award from the Bureau of Justice Statistics under the National Criminal History Improvement Program (CFDA 16.554) will enable the Montana Board of Crime Control (MBCC) to enhance Montana's criminal history data systems and information exchange capabilities.

The funding will allow MBCC to sub-award funds to the Montana Department of Justice (MT DOJ) to have a vendor make necessary upgrades to the state's Computerized Criminal History Repository (CCHV2) and Montana State Registry (MSR) systems. These enhancements will improve electronic data exchange between the two systems, expand access for authorized non-DOJ personnel, and ultimately enhance the quality, completeness, and accessibility of Montana's criminal history records. The project aims to build upon prior NCHIP-funded initiatives to strategically improve Montana's criminal justice information systems.

The project seeks to improve montanas criminal record information for availability to national investigative service providers. Montanas request will build upon and leverage the montana criminal history improvement project, funded with prior year nchip grants. Montanas criminal justice partners have a strong history of cooperation for strategically planned, incremental improvements to criminal history record information to meet nchip priorities. This years project will build upon the 2016 development of mtdojs current web-based computerized criminal history repository, CCHV2, which is closely coupled with the montana state registry (MSR). Since deployed to production in march 2020, DOJ staff have identified necessary enhancements required of both systems. Because of the integration between the two systems, the enhancements to both must be completed together. These enhancements will expand opportunities for interaction by non-DOJ personnel, making IT possible for authorized users in other criminal justice roles to actively establish and maintain their segments of criminal records and to access and utilize authorized information. Mbcc will subgrant funds to the montana department of justice (DOJ) to render the services of a vendor to make necessary enhancements to the CCHV2 and the MSR to improve the electronic exchange of data between the two systems. Mtdoj will provide the vendor with a list of prioritized enhancements. The vendor and mtdoj will participate in BI-weekly team meetings to discuss data-exchange specifications. The vendor will provide mtdoj with code to deploy for mtdoj testing. Failed testing will be remedied by the vendor and passed testing will be deployed to CCHV2 and MSR production.