The montana board of crime control (mbcc) will use funds to improve criminal history data systems and exchanges

The Montana Board of Crime Control (MBCC) was awarded a $1,123,798 Cooperative Agreement on January 1, 2025 under the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP), a grant initiative administered by the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics. The funds will be used to improve Montana's criminal history data systems and information exchanges, with the goal of enhancing the availability and quality of criminal record data for national investigative services. Key project components include: 1) Upgrading LiveScan fingerprint devices and mugshot capture/transfer systems at the Montana Department of Justice (MT DOJ), 2) Reducing the backlog of criminal record dispositions, and 3) Developing data linkages and a shared data warehouse to improve data quality and accessibility across Montana's criminal justice system. Additionally, the MBCC will use the funding to support a data management staff position and obtain software to help synchronize records and catalog data fields across disparate criminal justice information systems. The MT DOJ will serve as a sub-grantee to execute certain technology upgrade and data quality improvement initiatives under this NCHIP award.

The project seeks to improve montanas criminal record information for availability to national investigative service providers. Funds will be transferred to the montana department of justice for updating replacing livescan devices pursuant to title 5. Mbcc also plans to enhance mugshot capture and transfer to display an individuals identity history summary. The third montana project will involve reducing the backlog of dispositions. The last project will be a collaborative project with the montana legislative initiative to achieve the data linkages for a shared data warehouse. The mbcc's piece of this project will be to assure the foundational data from local law enforcement is accurate, and accessible to provide the highest quality data upstream. The nchip support for this project will be to assist with funding a data management support staff person for mbcc, and to obtain two software applications; one to assist with the synchronization of records received in the data warehouse from disparate data systems across the montana criminal justice system, and the other to assist in the cataloging of data fields and components in those records.