History

The Records and Technology Division is new as of July 1, 2005. Previously, the Records
Bureau, which houses the Criminal History Repository, existed as a section within the
Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP). It remained there until Senate Bill 452 of the 2005
Legislative Session was approved, which removed the Repository from the Nevada
Highway Patrol and established it under the Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Although in this document, the words Records Bureau and Repository are used
interchangeably, there is a distinction between the two. The Repository is the section of
the Records Bureau that houses the criminal history records of all offenders in Nevada
and includes the Fingerprint Technician, Fingerprint Support, and Records Management
units of the Bureau. The Records Bureau houses the Division Chief’s Office and several
other programs as listed below, but does not officially exist in statute as the “Records
Bureau.”

The Technology Bureau was its own division within the Department although it, too, did
not exist in statute. It started as the primary technical support for the Criminal History
Repository’s Nevada Criminal Justice Information System (NCJIS), which is the
backbone of all state criminal justice data, and gradually expanded to provide information
technology services to other divisions within the Department as the needs arose. Its
authority was inferred from the various enabling statutes of the other divisions within the
Department.

As SB 452 was making its way through the Legislature, the DPS Director made the
decision to merge the Records Bureau and the Technology Division into the Records and
Technology Division. Doing so recognizes the dependent relationship between the two:
the Records Bureau cannot exist without NCJIS, which is supported by the Technology
Bureau, and in FY10 the Technology Bureau is planning to receive approximately 68%
of its Programming budget, 55% of its Systems budget, and 58% of its overall operating
budget from funding passed through from the Records Bureau. Additionally, the other
programs managed by the Records Bureau, namely:

• Civil Applicant (fingerprint-based) Background Checks;
• Civil Name Background Checks;
• Brady Point-of-Sale Program (background checks for firearm purchases);
• State Sex Offender Registry;
• Temporary Protection Order Registry; and
• Dangerous Offender Notification

rely heavily on the Technology Bureau for maintenance and support of the computer
hardware and software that run these programs. While the two Bureaus are closely
linked and share many of the same goals, the focus of this Strategic Business Plan is on
the Technology Bureau only.

In 2007, the senior management within DPS had decided that it needed to formalize the
structure of the Criminal History Repository and the Technology Division, so the
decision was made to combine these two Department functions under one formal
Division. The rationale was based on the mutual dependency each had with the other.
During the 2007 Legislative Session, the Records and Technology Division was created
under NRS Chapter 480.130 and 480.140.