§ 40301 — State Grant Program For Criminal Justice Identification, Information, And Communication

(a) Subject to the availability of amounts provided in advance in appropriations Acts, the Office of Justice Programs relying principally on the expertise of the Bureau of Justice Statistics shall make a grant to each State, in a manner consistent with the national criminal history improvement program, which shall be used by the State, in conjunction with units of local government, State and local courts, other States, or combinations thereof, to establish or upgrade an integrated approach to develop information and identification technologies and systems to— (1) upgrade criminal history and criminal justice record systems, including systems operated by law enforcement agencies and courts; (2) improve criminal justice identification; (3) promote compatibility and integration of national, State, and local systems for— (A) criminal justice purposes; (B) firearms eligibility determinations; (C) (D) identification of sexual offenders; (E) identification of domestic violence offenders; and (F) background checks for other authorized purposes unrelated to criminal justice; and (4) capture information for statistical and research purposes to improve the administration of criminal justice. (b) Grants under this section may be used for programs to establish, develop, update, or upgrade— (1) State centralized, automated, adult and juvenile criminal history record information systems, including arrest and disposition reporting; (2) automated fingerprint identification systems that are compatible with standards established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and interoperable with the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; (3) finger imaging, live scan, and other automated systems to digitize fingerprints and to communicate prints in a manner that is compatible with standards established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and interoperable with systems operated by States and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; (4) programs and systems to facilitate full participation in the Interstate Identification Index of the National Crime Information Center; (5) systems to facilitate full participation in any compact relating to the Interstate Identification Index of the National Crime Information Center; (6) systems to facilitate full participation in the national instant criminal background check system established under section 40901(b) of this title for firearms eligibility determinations, including through increased efforts to pre-validate the contents of felony conviction records and domestic violence records to expedite eligibility determinations, and measures and resources necessary to establish and achieve compliance with an implementation plan under section 40917 of this title; (7) integrated criminal justice information systems to manage and communicate criminal justice information among law enforcement agencies, courts, prosecutors, and corrections agencies; (8) (9) court-based criminal justice information systems that promote— (A) reporting of dispositions to central State repositories and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and (B) compatibility with, and integration of, court systems with other criminal justice information systems; (10) ballistics identification and information programs that are compatible and integrated with the National Integrated Ballistics Network (NIBN); (11) the capabilities of forensic science programs and medical examiner programs related to the administration of criminal justice, including programs leading to accreditation or certification of individuals or departments, agencies, or laboratories, and programs relating to the identification and analysis of deoxyribonucleic acid; (12) sexual offender identification and registration systems; (13) domestic violence offender identification and information systems; (14) programs for fingerprint-supported background checks capability for noncriminal justice purposes, including youth service employees and volunteers and other individuals in positions of responsibility, if authorized by Federal or State law and administered by a government agency; (15) criminal justice information systems with a capacity to provide statistical and research products including incident-based reporting systems that are compatible with the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and uniform crime reports; (16) multiagency, multijurisdictional communications systems among the States to share routine and emergency information among Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies; (17) the capability of the criminal justice system to deliver timely, accurate, and complete criminal history record information to child welfare agencies, organizations, and programs that are engaged in the assessment of risk and other activities related to the protection of children, including protection against child sexual abuse, and placement of children in foster care; and (18) notwithstanding subsection (c), antiterrorism purposes as they relate to any other uses under this section or for other antiterrorism programs. (1) To be eligible to receive a grant under this section, a State shall provide assurances to the Attorney General that the State has the capability to contribute pertinent information to the national instant criminal background check system established under section 103(b) of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (18 U.S.C. 922 note).2 (2) Such assurances shall include a provision that ensures that a statewide strategy for information sharing systems is underway, or will be initiated, to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system, with an emphasis on integration of all criminal justice components, law enforcement, courts, prosecution, corrections, and probation and parole. The strategy shall be prepared after consultation with State and local officials with emphasis on the recommendation of officials whose duty it is to oversee, plan, and implement integrated information technology systems, and shall contain— (A) a definition and analysis of “integration” in the State and localities developing integrated information sharing systems; (B) an assessment of the criminal justice resources being devoted to information technology; (C) Federal, State, regional, and local information technology coordination requirements; (D) an assurance that the individuals who developed the grant application took into consideration the needs of all branches of the State Government and specifically sought the advice of the chief of the highest court of the State with respect to the application; (E) State and local resource needs; (F) the establishment of statewide priorities for planning and implementation of information technology systems; and (G) a plan for coordinating the programs funded under this subchapter with other federally funded information technology programs, including directly funded local programs such as the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program and the M.O.R.E. program established pursuant to part Q of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 [34 U.S.C. 10381 et seq.]. (d) The Federal share of a grant received under this subchapter may not exceed 90 percent of the costs of a program or proposal funded under this subchapter unless the State has achieved compliance with an implementation plan under section 40917 of this title or the Attorney General waives, wholly or in part, the requirements of this subsection. (1) There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $250,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2018 through 2022. (2) Of the amount made available to carry out this section in any fiscal year— (A) not more than 3 percent may be used by the Attorney General for salaries and administrative expenses; (B) not more than 5 percent may be used for technical assistance, training and evaluations, and studies commissioned by Bureau of Justice Statistics of the Department of Justice (through discretionary grants or otherwise) in furtherance of the purposes of this section; and (C) the Attorney General shall ensure the amounts are distributed on an equitable geographic basis. (f) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the Attorney General may use amounts made available under this section to make grants to Indian tribes for use in accordance with this section.