Thursday - January 29, 2009

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

This is another post on my experience of applying for a Pistol Purchase Permit here in the Worker’s Paradise of New Jersey. It’s been a bit over 30 days now, which is what a toothless NJ law says is the allowed time limit for the process to take. By now all the various dark and dusty corners of my life should have had the pure light of investigation shown on them; all my little rocks should have been overturned and the worms underneath accounted for. A decision on my level of sanity and social malfeasance should have been reached. It hasn’t yet, so now it’s up to me to figure out what I should do about that.

In the meantime I’ve done quite a bit of research. Since “ignorance of the law is no excuse” I’ve looked up and read every single law my state has on the books regarding the legal acquisition and legal use of firearms. There are lots of them. It’s been quite the eye opener. NJ even has laws about what questions can and can not be on the application form.

I wish somebody had asked me. I would have asked two questions and that would have covered everything: “1) Are you a nutter? If so tell us about it.” and “2) Have you ever been in trouble with the law? If so, tell us about it”. To which my answers would be 1) NO and 2) I’ve had a few speeding tickets over the years, and I got caught with a shoebox full of fireworks when I was 23 and had to pay a $40 fine. And that would be that. Oh, and in 4th grade I once told the teacher, Mrs. Blair, that I had my trombone lesson when I actually didn’t, and snuck out of class for half an hour. And that got me sent to the principal’s office, although no criminal charges were filed.

But such a simple solution like that would never work, and I’m being naive by assuming that people are as honest an open as I am. So the law is that my background must be investigated by the proper authorities. Ok, fine, have it your way. But after a couple weeks of waiting I started to wonder what that meant, so I started looking for answers. And what I found is pretty amazing. I had no idea just how much investigation is done, and that awareness really opened my eyes to the level of “watchbird"-ism that our government has. On the one hand I can see the need for almost all of it. On the other hand this awareness really gets under my skin because it shows how little freedom we may actually have. Or maybe that “little freedom” just applies to those who have broken the law.

Or are thinking of breaking the law.

This is a (assumed to be partial) list of all the agencies that New Jersey contacts during the firearms application background check process. I also get investigated by the FBI, and I have no idea at all what other things they might do. How do I know this? Because the entire world is online these days, and that includes the background check form that the New Jersey State Police use just for this purpose. Behold, the mighty form SP 407, NJ “FAIR”, the Firearms Applicant Investigation Report, which records the results from contact with these agencies:

• NCIC/SCIC

  National Crime Information Center / State Crime Information Center

  NCIC is a computerized index of criminal justice information (i.e.- criminal record history information, fugitives, stolen properties, missing persons). It is available to Federal, state, and local law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies and is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

  PURPOSE: The purpose for maintaining the NCIC system is to provide a computerized database for ready access by a criminal justice agency making an inquiry and for prompt disclosure of information in the system from other criminal justice agencies about crimes and criminals. This information assists authorized agencies in criminal justice and related law enforcement objectives, such as apprehending fugitives, locating missing persons, locating and returning stolen property, as well as in the protection of the law enforcement officers encountering the individuals described in the system.

  NCIC/SCIC checks to see if there are wants or warrants against me, whether I possess a stolen car, boat, or license plate, treasury notes, a violent felon, a missing person, or even hang out in gang areas. Also, am I a terrorist?

  This is a fully automated, computerized system. This look-up can also be done from a networked police car, and the results come back in about 8 seconds.

  SCIC has largely been replaced by NJWPS, the New Jersey Wanted Persons System. This is all part of the NJCJIS Criminal Justice Information System, which is controlled by the SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) which is part of the NJ State Police.



• Promis/Gavel

  The Promis/Gavel system is an automated Criminal case tracking system enhanced and supported by the Criminal Practice Division and the Information System Division (ISD) of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) in response to the needs of the criminal justice community. It captures information concerning defendants who have been charged with indictable offenses and tracks the processing of those defendants from initial arrest through appellate review. This system provides the function of docketing, indexing, noticing, calendaring, statistical reporting, case management reporting, and so forth. At the present time, 100% of the statewide criminal caseload is handled by Promis/Gavel.

  Promis/Gavel checks to see if there are currently charges lodged against me, and gets the status of those charges. Am I currently in the court system? This is a fully automated and computerized system.



• III/212a

  “III” stands for Interstate Identification Index, which is the government name for your national rap sheet. The 212a part is totally an INS thing. I looked and looked, and that’s the only time “212a” ever turns up in relation to a government anything. I guess it tells them whether I’m a foreigner, because, hey, my passport that I used for ID could have been a forgery you know. Along with my super-duper NJ driver’s license guaranteed to be forgery proof, because both IDs required quite a bit of proof of birth, proof of address, etc.

  So now we know all about my nefarious criminal past, and when I snuck across the border with a knapsack full of beans. III/212a is fully computerized as well.



• NJ Domestic Violence Registry

  The Domestic Violence Central Registry is accessible through the Family Division’s Automated Case Tracking System or FACTS.  The registry became operational in six of the 21 counties that comprise New Jersey in February of 1999.  [it’s operational in all of them by now] ...  The registry is accessible to all Superior Court, Family Part and law enforcement officers. 

  Have I stopped beating my wife recently? Does she have a restraining order out on me? Has she ever? We can thank good old Senator Frank Lautenberg (commie-NJ) for this one, which denys 2A rights to a special class of people convicted of a misdemeanor, and to those even subject to a restraining order, a legal action that is taken without any due process whatsoever for the person subject to it.

  Does DYFS get involved here too? I have no idea. I have no children, so that’s a wash for me, but what if some uppity DYFS worker “suspects” that you mistreat your kids? I wouldn’t bet half a stale donut that DYFS doesn’t have access to the FACTS, or that a national DVR doesn’t also exist which they can poke their noses into. Maybe I’m better off not knowing.

  NJDVCR/FACTS is another computer system.



• NJ DMV (DWI)

  Ever get caught driving drunk? I think it’s interesting to see this one on the form, because your driving record isn’t specifically one of the questions on the application, though it does ask about criminal offenses and alcoholism. And your driving record is almost always considered a separate thing from your actual criminal record, by all cops and courts everywhere. I have no idea why the State Police need to look up my driving record, but since they spend so much of their lives handing out tickets this is probably second nature to them. They may not know how to do an investigation without contacting DMV ... and this is not the only time they make such contact as part of my background investigation. Because my ability to drive a car has soooo much influence on my worthiness to own a firearm.

  No question that the DMV has everything on the old computer. No. Sorry, wrong. DMV has everything on the new computer. Even faster!



• State / Federal Fingerprints

  Otherwise known as AFIS for all you CSI fans. In NJ the police call it AFIU, probably pronounced Eff You, our own acronym that stands for Automated Fingerprint Identification Unit. “Eff You” has been upgraded to FIFIS, the Fully Integrated Fingerprint Identification System. [has it gone fwench?] And it is zippy quick: less than 10 days for a nationwide check, less than an hour for a statewide check.

  The use of new live scan fingerprinting technologies has reduced the ink card process and completes the background check within ten business days for both State and Federal checks. Fingerprints are electronically captured using Live Scan devices, eliminating poor quality submissions and the need to create two sets (state and federal) of fingerprint cards. Submissions are electronically processed using the FIFIS, allowing SBI state checks to be completed in approximately one hour. The fingerprints are also electronically transmitted to the IAFIS if needed, and are processed within twenty-four hours. Submitting state agencies are receiving criminal history record results electronically within one to ten business days.

  AFIS is of course connected to III, so this is another way that my past as a crimelord will come to light.

  Lucky for me that I had my fingerprints taken digitally, so that will save them lots of time. Another computerized system of course.



• ACS / ATS

  This is the Automated Traffic System (ATS) and its criminal component, the Automated Complaint System (ACS)

  The cornerstone of the Judiciary’s efforts to modernize and improve the State’s Municipal Courts rests with the development of the Automated Traffic System (ATS) and its criminal component, the Automated Complaint System (ACS). The ATS/ACS system database permits Municipal Court personnel to perform all case management functions—from initial entry, case status updating and case histories to collections, disbursements of monies and case dispositions. Additionally, the system is also designed to accelerate the direct exchange of information between the Division of Motor Vehicle Services (DMV) and the Municipal Courts.

  Every Cop Shop in the state has one of these terminals. Another way of checking to see if there are warrants out against me, and also to see how many traffic tickets I’ve had (2 in the past decade). So now the cops are again looking at my driving record, and they’re again seeing what’s in the court system that I’m involved in. But hey, what’s a little redundancy between branches of the government? You wouldn’t want a citizen to slip through the cracks, so let’s check another computer system that does the exact same thing, just in case. So this is yet another process that should take at best a few seconds.



• US DEPT HOMELAND SECURITY

  Another way to see if I’m secretly a terrorist, or on a no fly list, or actually named Mohammed. But in theory they only check with this group if it’s already been shown that I’m not a citizen. Don’t bet on that one either, although it may save the NJ State Police a little time by just letting the FBI tell them if I’m a suspected domestic terrorist. The good news is that the FBI only gets 72 hours to return the results of their investigation to the NJSP. The gooder news is that the federal government is even more computerized than the state government, so who knows what they can turn up in a matter of seconds by contacting departments and agencies you and I have never even heard of.

  Guaranteed to be fully computerized and run on the latest and greatest computers going. What, you think we spent all that Patriot Act / Homeland Security money on garbage trucks?



• Alien / VISA Registration Number

  I guess if all this background checking has shown that my real name is Pedro and there’s no warrant out for me in southern California for Illegal lettuce picking, then I might have a Visa. If so, that number goes here. I guess not being an actual American might preclude me from buying a gun in NJ, but I’m not 100% sure on that. Certainly foreigners can come to the US on hunting vacations, so they must be allowed to bring guns with them. Does that mean that can buy another one while they’re here? I don’t know. And if they’re over here to work or go to school, and maybe apply for citizenship, can they exercise the old 2A while doing so? In NJ?? Again, I don’t know.
  

Wow. That’s a lot. I feel the need to go take a shower after reading it all. In the dark, to defeat the hidden cameras. And I’m running low on tinfoil, better go to the store after that.

Interestingly, the NICS check that gets run on me, by law, when I actually get the one gun pistol purchase permit and use it before it expires in 90 days, also checks me out with NCIC, III, the NJ Domestic Violence Registry, Mental Health, and DMV all over again. Just in case I’ve turned into Al Capone in the meantime.

The NICS Operation Center transmits a formatted message to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) NICS Operation Center accessing the Interstate Identification Index (III), National Crime Information Center (NCIC) hot files and the NICS Index. In addition to these files the NJSP NICS Operation Center accesses the following New Jersey data bases: the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) Domestic Violence Central Registry, the Division of Mental Health Services (DMHS) Census and USTF databases, the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) files and the NJSP Firearms Investigations Unit files.

The [NJ SBI] Bureau has management responsibility for the following statewide programs:

* Master Name Index
* Computerized Criminal History System
* Noncriminal User Fee System
* Megan’s Law Sex Offender Registry
* Central Drug Registry
* Interstate Identification Index
* Court Disposition Reporting System
* Automated Fingerprint Identification System
* Arrest and Conviction Flag File
* National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)
* New Jersey Wanted Person System (NJWPS)
* National Crime Information Center (NCIC)
* Criminal Justice Information Systems
* Volunteer Review Operation
* Expungement

Which leads me to wonder, why not just take my fingerprints and run them through AFIS? If they come up clean, run me through NICS right there at the police station. If that clears, I’m good to go. The exact same checks are done at the point of purchase as are done during the application process. NICS takes a minute or two. The application process takes 30 days by law, but no more than 10 days maximum in real life to acquire the data. Most aspects of it take less than 10 minutes, probably less than 10 seconds, and are coordinated by the CIU of the SBI of the NJSP so that they all fire off at the same time. So why is Trooper H telling me this is a 3 to 6 month process, and maybe longer?

The Great And Powerful Oz seems to have the whole world at their fingertips; I think the process should take less time than it takes to even fill out the forms. I must be missing something. Oh yeah. The mental health part. Which is also completely computerized.

Maybe I should take 2 showers, just in case.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/29/2009 at 11:25 AM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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