The Contracting Parties agree to the following:

Overview

(a) In general

This Compact organizes an electronic information sharing system among the Federal Government and the States to exchange criminal history records for noncriminal justice purposes authorized by Federal or State law, such as background checks for governmental licensing and employment.

(b) Obligations of parties

Under this Compact, the FBI and the Party States agree to maintain detailed databases of their respective criminal history records, including arrests and dispositions, and to make them available to the Federal Government and to Party States for authorized purposes. The FBI shall also manage the Federal data facilities that provide a significant part of the infrastructure for the system.

ARTICLE I—DEFINITIONS

In this Compact:

(1) Attorney General

The term “Attorney General” means the Attorney General of the United States.

(2) Compact officer

The term “Compact officer” means—

(A) with respect to the Federal Government, an official so designated by the Director of the FBI; and

(B) with respect to a Party State, the chief administrator of the State’s criminal history record repository or a designee of the chief administrator who is a regular full-time employee of the repository.

(3) Council

The term “Council” means the Compact Council established under Article VI.

(4) Criminal history records

The term “criminal history records”—

(A) means information collected by criminal justice agencies on individuals consisting of identifiable descriptions and notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, or other formal criminal charges, and any disposition arising therefrom, including acquittal, sentencing, correctional supervision, or release; and

(B) does not include identification information such as fingerprint records if such information does not indicate involvement of the individual with the criminal justice system.

(5) Criminal history record repository

The term “criminal history record repository” means the State agency designated by the Governor or other appropriate executive official or the legislature of a State to perform centralized recordkeeping functions for criminal history records and services in the State.

(6) Criminal justice

The term “criminal justice” includes activities relating to the detection, apprehension, detention, pretrial release, post-trial release, prosecution, adjudication, correctional supervision, or rehabilitation of accused persons or criminal offenders. The administration of criminal justice includes criminal identification activities and the collection, storage, and dissemination of criminal history records.

(7) Criminal justice agency

The term “criminal justice agency”—

(A) means—

(i) courts; and

(ii) a governmental agency or any subunit thereof that—

(I) performs the administration of criminal justice pursuant to a statute or Executive order; and

(II) allocates a substantial part of its annual budget to the administration of criminal justice; and

(B) includes Federal and State inspectors general offices.

(8) Criminal justice services