CJIS

Department of Justice Announces Program to Enhance Tribal Access to National Crime Information Databases

Victoria Sweet1 Comment

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ANNOUNCES PROGRAM TO ENHANCE TRIBAL ACCESS TO NATIONAL CRIME INFORMATION DATABASES

 Department of Justice Tribal Access Program (TAP) Will Improve the Exchange of Critical Data 

Department of the Interior Companion Program to Provide Name-Based Emergency Background Checks for Child Placement

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice is launching an initial phase of the Tribal Access Program for National Crime Information (TAP) to provide federally-recognized tribes access to national crime information databases for both civil and criminal purposes.  TAP will allow tribes to more effectively serve and protect their communities by ensuring the exchange of critical data.

This initial phase of TAP was announced today in a meeting with tribes held during the 2015 Department of Justice/FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division Tribal Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“Federal criminal databases hold critical information that can solve crimes, and keep police officers and communities safe,” said Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates.  “The Tribal Access Program is a step forward to providing tribes the access they need to protect their communities, keep guns from falling into the wrong hands, assist victims and prevent domestic and sexual violence.  Empowering tribal law enforcement with information strengthens public safety and is a key element in our ongoing strategy to build safe and healthy communities in Indian country. ”

“The FBI is pleased to participate in this initiative,” said Executive Assistant Director Amy Hess of the FBI’s Science and Technology Branch.  “This will be a positive step for the tribal agencies to receive valuable criminal information and also for those same tribal agencies to submit criminal information at the national level.  Through this partnership, information becomes richer and communities can become safer.”

TAP will support tribes in analyzing their needs for national crime information and help provide appropriate solutions, including a-state-of-the-art biometric/biographic computer workstation with capabilities to process finger and palm prints, take mugshots and submit records to national databases, as well as the ability to access CJIS systems for criminal and civil purposes through the Department of Justice.  TAP will also provide specialized training and assistance for participating tribes.

While in the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 Congress required the Attorney General to ensure that tribal officials that meet applicable requirements be permitted access to national crime information databases, the ability of tribes to fully participate in national criminal justice information sharing via state networks has been dependent upon various regulations, statutes and policies of the states in which a tribe’s land is located.  Therefore, improving access for tribal law enforcement to federal criminal information databases has been a departmental focus for several years.  In 2010, the department instituted two pilot projects, one biometric and one biographic, to improve informational access for tribes.  The biographic pilot continues to serve more than 20 tribal law enforcement agencies.

Departments of Justice and Interior Working Group

In 2014, the Departments of Justice and the Interior (DOI) formed a working group to assess the impact of the pilots and identify long-term sustainable solutions that address both criminal and civil needs of tribes.  The outcome of this collaboration was the TAP, as well as an additional program announced today by the DOI’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) that provides tribes with national crime information prior to making child placement decisions in emergency circumstances.  Under the BIA program, social service agencies of federally recognized tribes will be able to view criminal history information  accessed through BIA’s Office of Justice Services who will conduct name-based checks in situations where parents are unable to care for their children.

“Giving tribal government programs access to national crime databases through DOJ’s Tribal Access Program for National Crime Information is a tremendous step forward towards increasing public safety in Indian Country,” said Assistant Secretary Kevin K. Washburn for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior.  “The Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services’ Purpose Code X program provides a much-needed tool for tribal social service agencies when they must find safe homes to place children during temporary emergency situations.”

In the initial phase of the TAP program, the biometric/biographic workstations will be deployed to up to 10 federally-recognized tribes who will provide user feedback.  This phase will focus on assisting tribes that have law enforcement agencies, while in the future the department will seek to address needs of the remaining tribes and find a long-term solution.  The department will continue to work with Congress for additional funding to more broadly deploy the program.

The Department of Justice’s Chief Information Officer manages TAP.

“It is our hope that TAP can minimize the national crime information gap and drive a deeper and more meaningful collaboration between the federal, state, local and tribal criminal justice communities,” said Chief Information Officer Joseph F. Klimavicz for the department.

For more information on TAP, visit www.justice.gov/tribal/tribal-access-program-tap.

For more information about the Justice Department’s work on tribal justice and public safety issues, visit: www.justice.gov/tribal.

For more information about the Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs, visit www.indianaffairs.gov/

How Lack of Tribal Access to Databases Contributed to Tragic School Shooting

Victoria Sweet

Full article here.

Excerpts from the article:

A flawed reporting system between tribes and outside authorities allowed a man to buy a handgun later used by his son to kill four classmates and himself in Washington state — a problem state and federal agencies have long known about but haven’t fixed.

A domestic violence protection order issued by the Tulalip Tribal Court should have prevented Raymond Lee Fryberg Jr. from buying firearms. But the order was never entered into any state or federal criminal databases, as it would be if it came from a Washington county court.

Critics say that’s because state and federal officials have failed to establish a system that allows tribal courts to enter those orders directly, or create a process that ensures it happens easily.

Fryberg passed a background check when he bought one of the guns his son, Jaylen, used in an October shooting at his high school north of Seattle. Had the protection order been in a database, Fryberg would have failed the check and been denied the gun.

. . . .

A key problem is logistics. There’s no uniform way to enter information on tribal protection orders into state databases or the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and such reporting is not required by law.

“I can’t think of a single tribe that wants abusers to have access to firearms, but despite our efforts, we keep hitting roadblocks,” said Sarah Deer, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Stephen Fischer Jr., with the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services, said some tribes enter protection orders into a national database themselves, while others have agreements for state or local agencies to do it for them. Some tribes have no involvement with federal and state databases.

Tulalip Tribes attorney Michelle Demmert has said in testimony to the U.S. Justice Department that tribal courts should not have to go through the states to enter data.

“As sovereign nations, we should not be treated as subservient partners to the state,” she said.

. . .

The National Congress of American Indians said entry of tribal court cases often is done through agreements with state or county agencies, but that data entry “is frequently denied or delayed, thus jeopardizing victim safety.”

The organization called on the U.S. attorney general to review how criminal databases are accessed, consult with tribal governments and develop a remedy.

In another article posted on Indianz.com, full article here, Judge Richard Blake, current president of the NAICJA board said,

“This problem is not a local problem or unique to the Tulalip Tribes. The issue of lack of entry of tribal protection orders in state and federal databases is a national crisis,” said Richard Blake, a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe of California who serves as the president of the board of directors for NAICJA.

At the state level, Blake noted that tribes are barred from submitting data by the Washington State Police. So some tribes, including Tulalip, have entered into agreements in which local courts submit the information to the state database.

But Blake, who served as chief judge for his tribe, said the process is not flawless. Without direct tribal access, cases could fall through the cracks.

“We had hoped that with the passage of the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 which mandated the federal government to provide access to federal databases that this critical gap in public safety would be closed,” Blake said. “But here we are five years later and the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI are still in violation of the statutory requirement that tribes be given direct access to the NCIC system.”

Previous coverage here.