LANSING – The Michigan Department of State Police will run out of funding for its Criminal Justice Information System by June 1 and an additional $2.7 million is needed to pay for database improvements through Sept. 30.

Officials told the Senate Appropriations State Police and Military Affairs Subcommittee on Thursday that additional money would be needed for the next fiscal year to meet federal system requirements.

The State Police laboratories will also need additional money to be able to keep up with growing demand for services, officials said.

A group of local law enforcement officials spoke to the subcommittee to back up the department’s request for another $2.7 million to make up the funding shortfall in the current budget.

Kriste Etue, who oversees CJIS, said the department would not, as it did last fiscal year, overspend its authorization. But she said without the money there could be cutbacks in the system and there would not be needed improvements.

“The State Police will never shut the system down,” she said. “No improvements will happen to (the Law Enforcement Information Network) after June 1.”

Etue said the improvements were needed to avoid failing a third federal audit of the system. Among the findings was the system did not have security and policies in place to prevent unauthorized access.

“If we fail another audit, the feds could come in and shut down our access to NCIC (the federal database),” she said. “They’ve never done that but I don’t want to be the first.”

To questions from the committee, Etue said federal homeland security funds could be used for one-time improvements, such as the upgrade put in place at the beginning of the fiscal year, but could not be used for ongoing operations.

Among the proposed uses for the additional funds is hiring additional trainers who would serve double duty helping local agencies use the system and auditing their systems to be sure the security issues found in the federal audits are eliminated.

And local law enforcement officials said the additional funds for the program must come entirely from the state, not a third from local law enforcement as has been done in the past.

Clinton County Prosecutor Chuck Sherman said local law enforcement is not averse to a continued fee for access to the system, but he said it was unfair for the state to consider adding to the fee already collected because of the investment local agencies now have to make to access the system. The fee was developed, he said, when the State Police owned the system and it included terminals and phone connections to gain access.

“It’s not a situation where the locals cannot afford to pay their fair share. They’re paying their fair share,” Sherman said. “We’re saying the state needs to pay for the central repository of information.”

Allegan County Sheriff Blaine Koops said the relationship between the State Police and local law enforcement has changed as the system has changed. “We no longer have one central CJIS system. We have a number of local CJIS systems,” he said. “The state system is just a pass-through system.”

Etue argued the fee to local governments should end. “This has pitted law enforcement against law enforcement,” she said. “The State Police is not a bill collector.”

Mike Thomas, director of the Forensic Science Division, said his agency needs additional funding as well. While the laboratories are not in danger of running out of money during the current fiscal year, he said they are not able to keep up with demand.

Though the labs have been honored for their efficiency, Thomas said there are still backlogs in a number of areas because there are not enough people to do the work needed. And he said some local agencies do not send evidence to the state labs because they know the processing will not be done in time.

To eliminate the backlogs and have all evidence processed within 30 days would require an additional $7 million for the program, he said.

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