Research Bulletin

              By Susan Williams, ICJIA research analyst
Vol. 5, No. 4
November 2006
Research Bulletin
Criminal history records must provide an accu­rate account of an individual’s past encounters with the criminal justice system. Accurate, timely, and complete records help ensure officer safety, especially upon officer notification of previous weapon violations or violent crime convictions. Criminal his­tory records also are used for background checks re­lated to employment, adoption, citizenship, and firearm purchases.
The Illinois State Police Criminal History Record Infor­mation (CHRI) system is the fifth largest records data­base in the country. The Authority conducts periodic audits of the state’s central criminal record repository to verify compliance with government funding and statutory standards.
The 2006 CHRI Audit Report examined the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of electronic record transmissions to the Illinois State Police’s (ISP) Com­puterized Criminal History (CCH) system between 1999 and 2001. A particular focus was placed on submissions from county sheriff’s offices. The findings presented address the following areas:
The completeness and accuracy of sher­iff’s department arrest submissions forwarded to ISP’s CCH system.
The timeliness of arrest submissions posted to the CCH system.
The impact of electronic reporting on timeliness and posting the event.
In 1997, ISP initiated a project to redesign the CHRI system using federal National Criminal History Identifi­cation Program grant funds. Testing of the new system began in 1998, and ISP began using an upgraded Auto­mated Fingerprint Identification System in conjunction with a reconfigured computerized criminal history record identification system.
The system allows electronic receipt and transfer of demographic and fingerprint arrest data from local law enforcement entities to the ISP via livescan. The book­ing process involves entering a subject’s demographic information into an automated system, and then downloading it into a livescan device that captures and transmits digital fingerprint images to ISP. This allows ISP to transmit identification responses within hours.
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Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor
Sheldon Sorosky, Chairman
Lori G. Levin, Executive Director
Research Bulletins are published periodically by the Il­linois Criminal Justice Information Authority. They focus on research conducted by or for the Authority on a topic of interest to Illinois criminal justice professionals and policy­makers.
This project was supported by grants #01-DB-BX-0017 and #02-DB-BX-0017, awarded to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority by the Bureau of Justice As­sistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view in this document do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Depart­ment of Justice.
For more information about this or other publications from the Authority, please contact the Authority’s Criminal Justice Information Clearinghouse at 312-793-8550, or visit our website at www.icjia.state.il.us
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois, November 2006.
Audit shows improvement in record accuracy, timeliness, completeness