Federal Cooperative Agreement Award Summary

The Maine Department of Public Safety received a $1,007,456 Cooperative Agreement from the Bureau of Justice Statistics under the National Criminal History Improvement Program (CFDA 16.554), effective October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2028. This award supports critical improvements to Maine's criminal history record systems and related public safety infrastructure serving more than 240 criminal justice agencies statewide. The primary deliverables include: replacement of six aging LiveScan fingerprint devices at high-volume law enforcement agencies to ensure continued electronic capture and transmission of fingerprint-supported arrest records; implementation of a Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) audit tool to streamline compliance audits and enhance data quality across agencies; and enhancement of the computerized criminal history data quality dashboard to identify missing arrests, dispositions, fingerprints, and records related to domestic violence and firearm prohibitions.

Additionally, Maine will modernize its Metro Message Switch by implementing National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) XML enhancements to achieve FBI CJIS and National Crime Information Center (NCIC) third-generation messaging standards compliance. These infrastructure upgrades will strengthen data sharing among law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and criminal history systems while improving support for National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) background check decisions and ensuring compliance with federal criminal justice information exchange requirements. The project enhances accessibility and security of records used by multiple national systems including NCIC, NICS, Interstate Identification Index (III), National Law Enforcement Telecommunication System (NLETS), and Next Generation Identification (NGI).