October 20, 2005

Lansing - The Internet Criminal History Access Tool (ICHAT) received the Best Application Serving the Public Award from the inaugural Michigan Excellence Technology Awards Program.  The award was presented at the Michigan Digital Government Summit on October 12.

ICHAT was recognized for utilizing technology to apply the department’s resources more effectively and making the process of obtaining a criminal background check more efficient.  ICHAT allowed the department to reduce the amount of personnel and time devoted to processing background checks for the public and redistribute those resources to other areas.  In addition, prior to ICHAT it would take 3 to 4 weeks to receive the results of a mailed-in criminal history check; today ICHAT produces a report in approximately 18 seconds.

Developed by the Michigan State Police in 1999, ICHAT is a computerized name-based search of the Michigan Criminal History Record System that can be done online.   At the end of the year, the system will undergo a technology upgrade that will result in increased search capabilities and allow the greatest possible chance of finding a potential candidate on a name-based search.   In 2004, ICHAT handled over 842,000 searches.  By the end of September 2005, there were over 740,000 ICHAT searches conducted.

The site can be accessed at http://www.michigan.gov/ichat.

Read more news releases from the Michigan State Police.