December 7, 2005

Lansing -  The Michigan State Police (MSP) has announced the state’s Criminal History Record (CHR) system, the database that holds the arrest, charge, court deposition and confinement data for over 1.6 million people, has been upgraded to take advantage of emerging technology.

The new CHR system boasts faster transaction processing, enhanced record monitoring and provides more flexibility to law enforcement, courts and prosecutor’s offices who submit information to the system. The system also provides MSP with the ability to run status reports for local agencies to inform them of missing CHR data, which will help to ensure the completeness of records.

As a result of the new CHR system, citizens will benefit from improved search capabilities when conducting name-based criminal history background checks using the Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT). Some of the new capabilities include the ability to auto-generate additional names when hyphenated names and multi-part names are entered; the ability to provide matching values for common nicknames such as Victor and Vic; and a greater significance on driver’s license and social security number when returning matches.

Previously, ICHAT required an exact match on a person’s first and last name in order to return a result. The new system provides the greatest possible chance of finding a potential candidate on a name search.

Another key benefit of the new CHR system is its ability to store applicant fingerprints in the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). The improved CHR system also includes a Rap Back feature, which allows MSP to notify the submitting agency when a criminal fingerprint is matched to a stored set of applicant fingerprints. This is the feature that will allow the Michigan Department of Education to be notified when a school employee is convicted of a criminal offense in Michigan subsequent to passing an applicant background check (required by PA 130 of 2005).

The Michigan State Police began keeping criminal history records in 1927. ICHAT, a computerized name-based search of the Michigan Criminal History Record system that can be done online, was developed in 1999.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Tim Bolles, MSP Criminal Justice Information Center, (517) 322-5529 ; or Chad Canfield, MSP Criminal Justice Information Center, (517) 322-5459