Prairie State Wire

Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority Firearm Prohibitors and Records Improvement Task Force met Feb. 21.

Here are the minutes provided by the task force:

Task Force Member	Present	Absent
ISP Deputy Director: Chris Campbell – Designee Col Cpt. Jeffrey Yenchko	X
IDHS Designee: Deputy Director Dr. Sharon Coleman, Forensic & Justice Services	X
IDOC Director Designees: Sharon Shipinski, Zachary Sarver	X (Sharon)	X (Zachary)
Illinois Attorney General Designee: Caitlyn McEllis	X
AOIC Director Designee: Stephany Ortiz	X
Illinois Sheriffs’ Association Director: Jim Kaitschuk	X
Illinois State’s Attorney Association: Robert Berlin	X
Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police: Chief James Keegan		X
Illinois Health and Hospital Association designee: Lia Daniels		X
Illinois Municipal League: Reggie Freeman		X
ICJIA Executive Director or Designee: Delrice Adams, Timothy Lavery	X

Welcome: Call to order and roll call

Sarah takes roll call and quorum is met.

Old Business

Vote meeting minutes: January 23, 2025

Sharon S. motions and Bob seconds, vote passes.

New Business

Update: ICJIA NCHIP grant

2 years ago, this task force submitted NCHIP grant for live scan fingerprint equipment for the state, ICJIA is administering the grant and Michael Lynch provided an update.

Michael recapped that this was:

Submitted this grant to the DOJ.

ICJIA would seek out a dealer to manage this.

Sent out many NOFOs but had no responses, this was then taken over by ICJIA.

A possible partner was uncertain due to federal-level changes.

Now ICJIA plans to release a NOFO to focus on ICJIA owning this grant along with a grant extension to reflect this model change.

Consideration of two FOID prohibitors

A person who has been convicted within the past 5 years of battery, assault, aggravated assault, violation of an order of protection, or a substantially similar offense in another jurisdiction, in which a firearm was used or possessed.

A person who has been convicted of domestic battery, aggravated domestic battery, or a substantially similar offense in another jurisdiction committed before, on, or after January 1, 2012 (the effective date of Public Act 97-158).

Tim went over survey results from last October and recapped previous work from the previous year's work.

Tim went over the expectations of the task force and wanted the task force to discuss weaknesses and gaps within the firearm prohibition process per the statute so that recommendations can be crafted.

Tim conducted a poll of members so they could voice their opinions on the future direction of the task force which lead to a discussion on its results

Topics like training of mandated reports, reporting measures for ISP, firearm protection orders, Karina’s Law, focusing on one or two of the prohibitors, staying within statute guidelines, training/education, 

Tim went over the reporting process with convictions with corresponding duties and stakeholders that undertake them.

ICJIA is statutorily required to look over CHRI data – this was brought up to possibly discuss nuances in this data concerning live scans, direct filing and arrests. 

Colonel Christopher Campbell was brought to discuss this concerning ISP 

ISP compares FOID card data to CHRI weekly, if a conviction is found they take the appropriate action and take the FOID card. He also went over the addition of more fields, engaging stakeholders, and associated costs with this overarching process. 

Jacque Hayes also visited to discuss firearm prohibition.                

Training issues were discussed along with, training needed for the Criminal Identification Act, clerk's administrative duties, KIWI system, jurisdictional issues, and overall documentation process 

Tim asked for clarification on fingerprint cards and that this was an issue because the clerk’s did not always get the card 

Jacque discussed jurisdictional issues, not having the fingerprint card, differentiation in court charges and arrest charges, and integration with law enforcement and the state’s attorney’s office as barriers to this process 

This led to conversations about gaps on the current process. 

Bob discussed interfacing with clerk’s offices within DuPage County but within smaller counties there may be issues and a uniform way of reporting is needed 

Jacque discussed attempts at a uniform approach but there were many hurdles with uploading issues along with unpaid vendors taking on a high workload to assist in this process. Jacque identified a possible state-wide database as an option with more direct file automation with state attorney’s and a specific case management system/software for everyone across the state since some clerks do not have this. 

Tim built off of this saying that it may be easier to do this at the county level rather than the state level 

Tim discussed summarizing this meeting for the next assembly and narrowing topics of discussion as next steps 

Public Comment 

Tim opens the floor for a public comment, but no member of the public is present. 

Adjournment 

Sharon S. motions and Bob seconds, adjournment is passed, and the task force meeting ends.

https://icjia.illinois.gov/news/meetings/