Montrose - Daily Press

Katharhynn Heidelberg

Daily Press News Editor

MONTROSE — The Colorado Bureau of Investigation needs to improve its Brady-Act background checks, the Colorado Office of the State Auditor found after completing an investigation requested by Rep. Ray Rose, R-Montrose.

Advertisement

Colorado is one of 13 states to use a local or state law enforcement agency to conduct federally required background checks on firearms sales within state boundaries. Legislation passed in 2000 established CBI as the designated agency, but in June Rose questioned the processing times of its InstaCheck system and whether it was money well spent.

Rose said Wednesday the audit vindicated concerns. “The audit seems to bear out the complaints that I received. The most important thing was the fact that we, as the state CBI, were not doing the job taxpayers expect us to do. We’ve had some recommended changes and I think CBI is indeed trying to fulfill those recommendations.”

Auditors said the CBI should collect data on total response times, revisit performance goals, survey firearms dealers to determine normal retail business hours and work at reducing high turnover among temporary staffers operating the InstaCheck system. The CBI, in its responses, agreed to do so.

Lance Clem, public information officer for the CBI, said although the audit was a helpful review and the agency had already taken steps to implement recommendations, there were limits to what the agency could do at its present funding.

“It’s always good to have somebody else look at these things,” he said. “There are times when we’re asked to do more with the same amount of resources. This is an example. All we can try to do is cope with it.”

According to the report, the CBI did not include data for response times for requests submitted over the Internet, which represent more than 70 percent of the gun background checks requested through Insta-Check.

The audit also found that for 30 percent of telephone requests, data was inadequate for determining a response time. The system collected only data on queue time, or the amount of time a dealer waits on hold before speaking to a CBI operator, not actual processing time. The queue time experienced a staggering 625 percent increase between 2002 and 2005 (one minute, 46 seconds to 12 minutes, 46 seconds), while the number of dealer requests increased by only 9 percent.

“We conservatively estimate that during 2005, a firearms dealer in Colorado spent, on average, 27 minutes and 46 seconds (12 minutes, 46 seconds average queue time plus 15 minutes of processing time) on the phone waiting for each background check to be completed,” the report read.

It also found that other automated information systems, including the National InstaCheck System, were available more than 98 percent of the time.

“Therefore, lack of system availability does not appear to contribute to Brady Act-related background check delays,” the auditor found.

Peak times for checks — for instance, hunting season — were impacted by staffing issues. The CBI would bring in extra, temporary workers for those times and put the staffers through lengthy training, only to have them leave for full-time employment elsewhere. That increased the burden on remaining employees.

Clem said peak times were on the increase, with no signs of slowing. He told of a recent Monday that had seen 1,000 InstaCheck requests — a number more in line with a Saturday call volume.

“That has, in fact, increased the wait time. It’s unusual, but consistent with what InstaCheck has seen. All the InstaCheck folks can do is try to deal with the volume.”

Nor has staffing been increased. “There are not additional hires in temps or anything else to handle the workload, because there isn’t the money for it,” Clem said. “They’re working with the same staffing. At the same time, the workload continues to increase significantly.”

InstaCheck workers have to be proficient in examining a variety of data from very different systems that collect criminal history. Workers check to ensure whether a person can legally own a firearm in Colorado, where regulations can be more stringent than in other states or at the federal level. Due to immigration legislation passed the summer, InstaCheck workers now also check Immigration and Customs Enforcement databases.

“That creates additional burdens,” Clem said. “They have to scan more databases than they have before, including when the audit was done. The bottom line is, there are going to be longer waits.”

Clem said the CBI had addressed the audit’s findings, but wouldn’t be able to do much more until there was funding. He added that CBI is doing what it can to make the process more efficient.

Rose said he wasn’t sure how the Legislature could help the CBI meet its employee retention goals until the CBI made specific requests. “They will have to look at their processes. Quite frankly, their processing and using temporary help needs some fine-tuning. But retention of people is always difficult.”

Overall, Rose was pleased with the audit. “It identified some areas where the CBI needs to improve and it validated some of the complaints I have received. The dealers aren’t just complaining to complain,” he said.

“Any time you have an audit like this, it points out room for improvement. That’s where we need to go.”

Contact Katharhynn Heidelberg via e-mail at katharhynnh@montrosepress.com

Comments