Research Bulletin

              Vol. 2, No. 7 November 2003
Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Research Bulletin
The CHRI audit provided
a report card on the
state’s progress toward
compliance with federal
reporting standards.
Results of the 2003 Criminal
History Record Information Audit
By Susan Williams, ICJIA Research Analyst
Criminal history record series
Rod 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 is the first of a series of Research
Bulletins reporting on criminal history record information in
Illinois.
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 2003.
The Illinois Criminal Justice
Information Authority
conducts periodic audits of
the Criminal History Record
Information (CHRI) system to
assess the accuracy, timeliness, and
completeness of criminal history
records, while ensuring compliance
with federal guidelines. Audit
findings and recommendations
provide the Illinois State Police (ISP) with objective
information to make improvements in the develop-ment,
operation, and administra-tion
of the CHRI reporting program.
This article summarizes the meth-odology,
findings, and recommen-dations
for improving the quality of
the CHRI reporting program as
detailed in the Authority’s 2003
Criminal History Records Infor-mation
Audit Report.
Audit information
The audit focused on the following areas of the CHRI
program:
• Accuracy of ISP’s Computerized Criminal History
(CCH) database system records compared to source
documents provided by local agencies.
• Timeliness in which local agencies submit required
criminal history information to the state system, and
the timeliness of processing that information at ISP.
• Completeness of the criminal history information
included on the CCH record.
• Flagging the records of convicted felons.
Funding for the audit was provided by the U.S. Depart-ment
of Justice through the Edward Byrne Memorial
State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program.
Under the Crime Control Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-647), all