Frequently Asked Questions

Brady must meet all four of the criteria listed below:

1. Hearing/opportunity to be heard
2. Intimate partner
3. Restrains future conduct
4. Credible threat or physical force

Please refer to ACCESS webpage under Manuals/NICS Documents for further information.

PCO/7 applies if any of the following conditions are met:

• If a protection order has an order to surrender form then PCO/7 would apply.
• If there is no order to surrender form then PCO/7 could still apply based on what the protection order says.
• If “shall immediately surrender weapons” is checked on the protection order then PCO/7 applies.
• If nothing is checked on the order and there is no order to surrender weapons then PCO/7 wouldn’t apply unless it meets our RCW 9.41.040(2) criteria.

All agencies entering records into Washington Crime Information Center (WACIC)/National Crime Information Center (NCIC) are required to monitor their teletype printer 24/7. The teletype printer is assigned to your primary ORI. Therefore, all records are required to be entered under your agency’s primary ORI to ensure that any teletype hit confirmation requests will be routed to the primary ORI.

Please refer to the CJIS Validations user guide found on the ACCESS webpage under the manuals tab. The instructions can be found on pages 8 through 10 to clear out a record stuck in Pending “Ack”.

Your agency cannot remove records directly out of NCIC. You must send an Administrative Message (AM) from your device to ACCSS and our WSP Information Technology Division (ITD) will take care of your request. Identity is confirmed via an AM therefore, email requests will not be accepted.

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 (Brady Act) requires Federal Firearms Licensor (FFLs) to request background checks on prospective firearms purchasers. In 1998, the Brady Act required the US Attorney General to create the National Instant Background Check System (NICS). Washington State is a partial point of contact state meaning that FFLs contact the FBI for NICS checks on long guns but must refer to local law enforcement to run NICS checks and additional state checks on purchases of handguns and Semi-automatic Assault Rifles (SARs). All law enforcement agencies are required to use the QNP and QNR NICS transactions to process these checks. The use of criminal history (QH, QWH, QR, etc.) is prohibited and considered misuse of the ACCESS System.

The following reasons are prohibited when running criminal history because they require the use of NICS:

• Issuing a Concealed Pistol License (CPL), rechecking or revoking a CPL
• Firearm transfer, with or without a CPL
• Alien Firearm Licenses
• Disposition of Firearms which is a release of a firearm from evidence

For more information, refer to:

• The ACCESS Operations Manual, located on the ACCESS webpage, Chapter 20: National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)
• RCW 9.41.090 (3), RCW 9.41.092; RCW 9.41.113

No, city and/or county employees are not criminal justice employees. It is recommended that the city or county obtain an account with Washington ACCESS to Criminal History (WATCH) at (360) 534 2000. This is an internet based program with real time access to Washington State criminal history. Information will be made available according to Washington State law. WATCH may be utilized for any city and county employment requirements.

Examples of some of the city employees not entitled to a background check through the ACCESS terminal are firefighters, code enforcement, animal control, parks and emergency management.

All CPS case workers must be referred to the Seattle office of the Department of Social and Health Services Children’s Administration (DSHS) at 1-360-902-0299.

Emergency placement of endangered persons should be processed through DSHS. Agencies should not be conducting checks these unless they are submitting fingerprints to DSHS.

The three logging requirements are as follows. You will also need to refer to your agency’s specific Criminal History Use and Dissemination procedure for guidance:

• Requestor: The first initial and last name or a unique identifier that will not change throughout the user’s career.
• Criminal justice reason: must be a specific reason or case number. If a reason is abbreviated it must be on your agency’s approved abbreviations list.
• Proper purpose code

A person’s Denied Firearm Applicant (DFA) entry can be removed from the Person of Interest File in Washington Crime Information Center (WACIC) in two ways: by winning an appeal or by notifying the Washington State Patrol (WSP) that they have appealed their denial.

If a denied person has appealed and is subsequently approved by the FBI or by the local agency that originally denied them, they must return to the Federal Firearms Licensor (FFL) that originally denied them and show the appropriate documentation from the result of their winning appeal. The FFL will notify Washington Association of Sheriff’s & Police Chiefs (WASPC), which will notify the WSP. The ACCESS Section of the WSP will then remove the person’s DFA from the Person of Interest File in WACIC.

If a person has appealed their denial and are still in appeal status, they can notify WSP by sending in the appropriate documentation. Once received, the WSP will remove the person’s DFA entry from the Person of Interest File in WACIC. However, the WSP is required to check back in a year to determine if the person is still in an appeal status, has won their appeal or has lost their appeal. If after a year they are denied or still in appeal status, WSP enters them back into the system until notified otherwise.

For more information, refer to: RCW 9.41.114; RCW 43.43.823

No, Denied Firearm Applicant (DFA) entries are for information only; you cannot deny a person based only on the receipt of a DFA. These entries provide information on a person who was, at one point in time, denied a firearm. You can, however, contact ACCESS to find out if the denying agency information is available. If so, you can contact that agency to find out why they denied the person at that time.

You should not get an OTS without a protection order. If you do, please contact the court and ask for a copy of the original order.

There is nothing on either the civil or criminal OTS forms, or in RCW 9.41.800 and RCW 9.41.801, that requires you to enter an OTS into the NICS Indices or any other database. Your agency can choose to enter these into the NICS Indices, but you will need to include the OTS expiration date.

Refer to the Brady and PCO/07 Slides Handout

A Federal Firearms Licensor (FFL) is required to have an NICs Transaction Number (NTN) for each Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) form 4473 that they receive. The ATF Form 4473 can have multiple firearms listed for a single subject. However, the FTA that the FFL is required to send to the local law enforcement agency and the Department of Licensing (DOL), has room for just one firearm. As a result, local law enforcement may receive multiple FTAs from an FFL for the same person.

Ultimately, it is up to your agency how you choose to process the forms.

Example: Three FTA forms are received but each is for the same person with the same date of birth.

• You may run a NICS check for each FTA received, for a total of three different NTNs. Although the checks are all for the same person, you would not be penalized in an audit for doing this as there are three different firearms being processed. If the person filled out three different ATF Forms 4473, the FFL may actually request three different NTNs.
• Or, if you have contacted the FFL and are confident that the three firearms are for the same subject, you can process all three FTAs with just one NICS check (and one NTN).

The FBI requires both a business and technical security audit every three years.

In many cases, there is one assigned Information Technology (IT) point of contact for multiple agencies. When that happens, it’s easier on the agency (and the auditors) to conduct one ‘group’ technical audit instead of individual audits.

Yes, however, due to the sometimes highly technical nature of the audit, it is recommended that someone with a good understanding of an agency’s Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) and network architecture be the point of contact.

ABSOLUTELY! In fact, we encourage it. The TAC and the IT POC should be communicating on a regular basis and aware of changes that may affect each other.

Complete the ORI Request Form and email it to the WSP Customer Services at itdhelp@wsp.wa.gov. The request will be assigned to the ACCESS Section for processing. The agency TAC will be contacted and the following will be reviewed:

• One month of your criminal history logs
• ACCESS certification list – Is it current? If not, users will have to be scheduled for an ACCESS class.
• Validations – must be current, if you are an agency that enters records
• Previous Audit – all outstanding issues must be in compliance

The ACCESS Section will review all items to ensure they are in compliance. Once that occurs, then the request is approved and the ORIs are issued. Your agency may be denied additional ORIs based on the results of your current audit.

ALL personnel with unescorted access to unencrypted Criminal Justice Information (CJI), either physically or logically, must have a state and national fingerprint based background check PRIOR to being granted access to CJI.

The Terminal Agency Coordinator (TAC) can request a list of any records that have been entered into the system. Criminal history can be requested as well. It is recommended that criminal history be audited on a quarterly basis, especially if the agency has compliance issues with criminal history. Record requests can be requested orcan be requested by e-mailing: access@wsp.wa.gov. Include your primary ORI. If you are requesting criminal history logs include the dates you would like to have, example May 20XX – November 20XX.

You can log into nexTEST and pull up a list of all of your certified users. The link to nextTest is https://fortress.wa.gov/wsp/nextest/nextest/index.cgi. If you do not know your username and password, send an email to access@wsp.wa.gov. Once logged in go to the “reports” section and look for the “certification expiration report”. This report will show you a list of your certified ACCESS users and when they are going to expire.

Complete the memo 550 which can be found on the ACCESS webpage under the forms tab and email to access@wsp.wa.gov. Fill out the section advising of the new location.

nexTEST: Please go to the ACCESS webpage under the manuals tab to find the TAC nexTEST User Guide, and follow the instructions on page 10-12 to complete this task.

CJIS Validations: Please go to the ACCESS webpage under the manuals tab to find the CJIS Validations User Guide, and follow the instructions on page 4-7 to complete this task.

CJIS Online: Once you are logged into CJIS Online, add the assistant TAC as a user by clicking on “Add User”. Once the appropriate information is filled out click “Next”. The level you will choose for the user is “Remove Security Awareness Training” since the Assistant TAC is ACCESS certified they do not have to take the training. You will also want to check the box that states “Admin ACCESS” that way the Assistant TAC can add and remove users for the TAC. Once that is complete you can click submit and they will use the “Agency Administrator Login” using their email and password that you created.

The Terminal Agency Coordinator (TAC) must sign all students up for an ACCESS class because they keep track of all their users’ certification/expiration dates. Ensure students have completed the appropriate level of security awareness training prior to enrolling them. The TAC should ensure they are enrolling the student in the appropriate level class.

All personnel that have unescorted access to Criminal Justice Information (CJI) must complete the Security Awareness training that are not ACCESS certified. This may include your agency’s custodial, Information Technology (IT) staff, facilities personnel, administrative support staff, upper management, and prosecutor’s office staff. This training must be completed every year.

All criminal justice employees must be fingerprinted, both state and nationally under the employing criminal justice agency’s ORI, PRIOR to being granted unescorted access to unencrypted Criminal Justice Information (CJI). Notify ACCESS at: access@wsp.wa.gov and we will move the employee to your certification list.

You have TWO hours to complete the test. If you have to leave in the middle of testing, you will need to LOG OUT by selecting the Logoff button. If you fail to log out properly, you will fail the test and will be required to go back to class.

To continue your test please refer to pages 3 through 5 in the NexTEST user guide found on the ACCESS webpage.

If you fail or expire you will be required to go back to a class. Your Terminal Agency Coordinator (TAC) must request Remedial Training to be added to your record. Once added by WSP ACCESS, Remedial Security training will be found within the “Other Certifications”. Once you complete your remedial training and test, your TAC can sign you up for class.

If you are an Omnixx user use the “Forgot your password or pin” link on the Omnixx log in screen. Once that is completed you can use the new password to log into nexTEST.

If you are a non-Omnixx user, contact the WSP ITD helpdesk at (360) 705-5999. Password resets must be done over the phone.

The Terminal Agency Coordinator (TAC) and users can reset their own passwords using the “Forgot password” link.

There could be several reasons for no state identification number: the fingerprints were not sent to the Identification Section, they were sent to the Identification Section but were rejected, the fingerprints were sent in as a non-retainable transaction (i.e.: concealed pistol license, gambling license, etc.). Call the Identification and Criminal History Section at (360) 534-2000 for more information.

All agencies must investigate allegations of ACCESS misuse. The TAC, being the point of contact for the agency, is required to notify the agency head. Here are some examples of misuse:

• a. Running criminal history on family or friends
• b. Running a vehicle registration for personal use
• c. “Visiting” or sending inappropriate administrative messages across a mobile data terminal ACCESS connection

All allegations of ACCESS misuse must immediately be reported to the ACCESS Section Manager using the ACCESS Violation Incident Report Form. The violation report can be found on the ACCESS website: https://wsp.wa.gov/access/forms/.