The arizona criminal justice commission (acjc) will use funds towards the following projects: 1) nics task force planning and oversight

The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission (ACJC) was awarded a $1,844,414 Cooperative Agreement under the NICS Act Record Improvement Program (CFDA 16.813) by the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, effective October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2026. The funding will support the following key activities:

1. NICS Task Force planning and oversight, including a consultant and project manager to continue progress on Arizona's NICS Task Force and Records Improvement Plan goals over 24 months.

2. NICS record improvement plan activities, with sub-committees addressing challenges and gaps in records automation, legal, privacy, and policy areas under the task force's direction.

3. Research and automation of approximately 4,500 of the 134,714 non-automated criminal history records held by the Arizona Supreme Court to help clear the backlog.

4. A disposition reporting project with the Phoenix Police Department to identify root causes of unreported dispositions, develop solutions, and clear over 900,000 unreported final dispositions.

The sub-awards under this Cooperative Agreement include $302,700 to the Arizona Department of Public Safety for the disposition reporting project, and $342,700 to the City of Phoenix Police Department for their NICS Act Records Improvement Program efforts.

Funds will be used to support a consultant and project manager for 24 months to continue with the progress in achieving project goals by the arizona nics task force and arizona nics records improvement plan. The consultant will ensure the timely completion of tasks assigned to project resources as designated in the schedule. Support from a project manager is required to continue gathering critical information to establish requirements, functional specifications, and technical design recommendations. 2) nics record improvement plan activities. Under the direction of the task force, sub-committees will continue assisting in the progress of the strategic plan by addressing challenges and gaps identified through analysis. Sub-committees include: records research and analysis, legal, privacy, and policy. Funding is requested to support program and financial management performed by the acjc system improvement program manager.3) research pending superior court cases. The arizona supreme court is requesting funds to research the pending superior court cases for which the clerk of the court had never received a final disposition report. Plans are to use nics funds to automate approximately 4,500 of the 134,714 non-automated arizona criminal history records and assist in clearing the backlog of the remaining criminal history records collection. Funds will also allow staff to work on day-to-day tasks that are not in backlog but require timely entry/modifications in the acch. 4) phoenix police departments disposition project - the phoenix police department will hire temporary staff to work collaboratively with their law enforcement partners to identify root causes of unreported dispositions, come to mutual agreement on how to fix the issues moving forward, identify programs and tools to help report more timely to the arizona department of public safety, provide training to existing staff in how to submit corrections and update final dispositions as well as create a plan with mutually agreeable rules for updating older unreported dispositions in order to clear out the over 900,000 backlog of unreported final dispositions.