Cooperative Agreement Summary

The Connecticut Office of Policy & Management, on behalf of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP), received a $2.56 million Cooperative Agreement from the Bureau of Justice Statistics under the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP, CFDA 16.554). Awarded July 1, 2026, with a completion date of June 30, 2029, this three-year agreement funds three integrated criminal justice information system modernization initiatives. The first project supports ongoing defect remediation and enhancements to Connecticut's Computerized Criminal History System and Statewide Automated Biometric Identification System, including automation of legacy manual records, digitization of physical files, and improvements to data quality metrics dashboards. The second project deploys a Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS)-compliant, cloud-hosted message switch to modernize the Connecticut On-Line Enforcement Communications Teleprocessing System (COLLECT), enhancing reliability, security, and data exchange capabilities across state criminal justice agencies. The third project integrates Connecticut's ePardons system into the Connecticut Information Sharing System (CISS) workflow through requirements analysis, security control implementation, system-to-system data exchanges, and governance documentation to ensure lawful data sharing and FBI-CJIS compliance.

Collectively, these initiatives strengthen the accuracy and completeness of Connecticut's criminal history records infrastructure while supporting state background check operations and criminal justice information-sharing capabilities. The NCHIP program, active since 1995, provides financial and technical assistance to states for establishing or improving computerized criminal history systems and related databases that support firearm purchase background checks and general criminal justice operations.