Title
Authorization to Apply for the NICS Act Record Improvement Program (Ordinance S-51198)
Description
Request to authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to allow the Police Department to retroactively apply for, accept, and enter into an agreement with the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission for the NICS Act Record Improvement Program Grant. The grant amount is not to exceed $1,737,126. Further request authorization for the City Treasurer to accept, and the City Controller to disburse, all funds related to this item.
Report
Summary
This program seeks to enhance the completeness, automation, and transmittal of records to state and federal systems used by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Funding will be used to hire temporary employees to work collaboratively with the Department's 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.
This funding will assist the community by ensuring final dispositions are made readily available for National Instant Criminal Background Checks System. The grant application was due by July 8, 2024. If authorization is not approved, staff will rescind the application.
Contract Term
The contract term is for two years starting October 1, 2024, to January 1, 2025 with two one-year renewal options.
Financial Impact
The grant amount is not to exceed $1,737,126. No matching funds are required.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Lori Bays and the Police Department.