Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)
Conducts required background checks for Federal
Firearm Licensees to determine the potential
transferee’s eligibility to receive the firearm.
Ten federal disqualifiers
United States Code Section 922
State Law defines state disqualifiers
Florida Statute 790.065
The Process
Customer and FFL
The Process
FDLE Firearm Purchase Program
ATF Form 4473
• Name,
• Date of Birth,
• Place of Birth,
• Sex,
• Race, Social,
• Country of Citizenship,
• State of Residence
Demographic Check:
• FCIC
• NCIC
• Florida Criminal History
• National Criminal History
• NICS Index
• ICE (if non-citizen)
Name-Based Check
FCIC – Florida Crime Information Center
NCIC – National Crime Information CenterWants and Warrants
Protection Orders
Probation Status Files
Criminal History – RAP Sheets
Record of Arrests and Prosecutions
NICS Index
Disqualifying Records that are not available in the other systems
ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• Records containing information that a subject is
disqualified by federal or state law are placed into the
NICS Index.
• It is especially important to enter records into NICS that
do not fit or cannot be entered into one of the other data
resources (FCIC, NCIC, or RAP sheets).
Mental Health Records
Federal Prohibition - USC 922 (g)(4)
• Adjudicated Mentally Defective
• Committed to a mental institution
NICS Index
Includes records with a judicial finding:
• Danger to self or others; or
• Lacks mental capacity to contract or manage own affairs; or
• Found not guilty by reason of insanity; or
• Found guilty but mentally ill by a court in a criminal case; or
• Found incompetent to proceed in a criminal process
• Committed to mental health treatment involuntarily
• Inpatient or Outpatient
• Length of treatment is not a consideration
• Includes mental illness/treatment for drug or alcohol abuse
Does NOT Include:
• Physician’s finding/diagnosis (must have adjudication by court)
• Incompetent to handle household affairs or minority age
• Persons held for observation only
Enter Mental Health Records
Mental Competency (MECOM) Database
• Established in 2007 to receive and store mental health
court orders that are firearms disqualifying.
• Information is uploaded to National Instant Criminal
Background Check System (NICS) to share with FBI and
other states – ACCESS IS STRICTLY LIMITED for firearm
related background checks.
• Shared with the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services for the issuance and retention of
concealed weapon licenses.
MECOM
Auditor General – Operational Audit
Reporting Requirements
Recommendation: We recommend that Department management establish procedures to monitor the timeliness of entries into the MECOM application and continue to work with the Clerks to ensure that mental defectiveness adjudication and court-ordered mental institution commitment records are timely entered into the MECOM application as required by State law. In addition, we recommend that Department contacts with, and responses from, Clerks in counties for which no records are entered into the MECOM application are adequately documented.
Planned Activities: • Educate Clerks on tools (reports) within MECOM to provide the tools needed to
monitor and ensure records are being submitted within required time frames• Review and update user guide to emphasize statutory requirement F.S.
790.065(2)(a)4b(II)(D)• Reduce duplicate entry by building a web interface with CCIS • Letters to Clerks in counties with no entries
Finding 1: Mental Competency Application Records
F.S. 790.065 (2)(a)• Requires FDLE to ‘compile and maintain an
automated database.’
• Requires the Clerks of Court to submit records within
specified time frames.
• 30 days Involuntary / Adjudicated
• 24 hours Involuntary to Voluntary Transfers
• Defines who should be entered into MECOM.
• Requires at a minimum the reporting of name (along
with alias or former name), sex, and date of birth of
subject.
Reporting Requirements
Demographics:
• Required by law – Name, Alias, Sex and DOB
• Extremely Useful – Race, Social Security #
• Helpful – Address, Relatives, Driver’s License
Number, any other information available
• Required by FBI - All information available must be
entered into the record. Comments field may be used.
Having more information helps to correctly identify the subject
of the order and prevent misidentification of persons with
same or similar names.
Reporting Requirements
Statute 790.065 amended in 2013 to require
reporting of very specific situations that start as an
involuntary examination where the patient is
permitted by physician to transfer to voluntary care.
Requires these records to be submitted within 24
hours of adjudication.
Reporting Requirements
Reporting RequirementsCondition A
Examining physician finds the person is an imminent danger to self or
others;Condition B
Examining physician certifies that if the person had not agreed to transfer
from involuntary to voluntary treatment a petition for involuntary treatment
(has been or) will be filed;
Condition C
The patient received written notice that he or she may be prohibited from
purchasing a firearm and may not be eligible to apply for or retain a
concealed weapon license and acknowledged that notice in writing.
Condition D
A judge or magistrate has reviewed and ordered such record be submitted
to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Restoration of Rights
Relief of Firearm Disability
• Clerks are encouraged to develop a packet to
include:
• Petition
• Notice of Hearing
• To complete relief, petition must be filed in
each county where there is a disabling court
order.
• Copy of petition and notice of hearing must be
provided to the State Attorney.
• Evidentiary hearing
• Record of hearing by Court Reporter or other court
approved electronic means.
• Final order issued by the Court based on
• Petitioner’s reputation;
• Mental health record;
• Circumstances surrounding firearm disability and any
other evidence;
• Petitioner not likely to act in a manner dangerous to
public safety.
Petition for Relief from Firearm Disability
• Firearm disability relief granted:
• Forward order to FDLE and the record(s)
are deleted from the MECOM database.
• Firearm disability relief denied:
• Petitioner may not petition for relief again for
one year.
• Petitioner may seek judicial review from the
District Court of Appeals.
Petition for Relief from Firearm Disability
Court Records - Appeals790.065 (2)(a)4.f. The department is authorized to disclose data collected pursuant to this subparagraph to agencies of the Federal Government and other states for use exclusively in determining the lawfulness of a firearm sale or transfer. The department is also authorized to disclose this data to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for purposes of determining eligibility for issuance of a concealed weapons or concealed firearms license and for determining whether a basis exists for revoking or
suspending a previously issued license pursuant to s. 790.06(10). When a potential buyer or transferee appeals a non-approval based on these records, the clerks of court and mental institutions shall, upon request by the department, provide information to help determine whether the potential buyer or transferee is the same person as the subject of the record. Photographs and any other data that could confirm or negate identity must be made available to the department for such purposes, notwithstanding any other provision of state law to the contrary. Any such information that is made confidential or exempt from disclosure by law shall retain such confidential or exempt status when transferred to the department.
Florida Mental Competency Application
• The Florida Mental Competency Application (MECOM) is an official application
built and maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
– The purpose is to receive and store information from the Clerks of Court in
Florida’s 67 counties.
– The information MECOM stores pertains to persons that have been
adjudicated mentally defective, committed to a mental institution by a court
order, or have a judicial finding of incapacity.
• MECOM was updated in 2015 to provide access to all Clerks of Court in Florida;
through the CJNET (Florida Criminal Justice Network) and the Internet.
– The application can be accessed through CJNET at https://mecom.flcjn.net or
through the Internet at https://mecom.fdle.state.fl.us
Prospective users
must click this link,
complete the form
that will pop up in
a new window,
and submit it to
FDLE’s MECOM
unit before gaining
access.
A DETAILED user guide can be accessed through this link.
MECOM Home Page
You can click
this link if you
forgot your
password; on
the next page it
will ask you for
your username
in order to reset
it.
Contact
information for
any questions
or log in issues.
MECOM Home Page
This page allows you to search for people (including alias) or cases already
entered in the system. Also, allows you to create a new person if no prior
record exists.
MECOM Search Page
MECOM Search Page
• Before creating a new MECOM entry, you MUST
search by full last name and first few letters of
the first name to determine if there a matching
person record already in the system.
– If there is a matching person record, DO NOT
create a new person but instead add the court
order to the existing person.
– If no matching person exists, you can create a
new person and add the court order.
Adding a Court Order
If you are certain that the person you searched is a match to someone currently in the
database you would select edit to add the court case to the existing person record.
Adding a Court Order
At this time you would select “Add Court Action” to add the court order to the
existing person record. This should only be done if they are a match.
Demographic Information for a New Person
Demographic Information for a New Person
• MECOM requires users to, at a minimum: enter name,
race, gender, and DOB in order for a MECOM record to
be complete.
– HOWEVER, since this information is shared with NICS
(National Instant Background Check System) the FBI
mandates that if you have more information, it must be
entered. Examples: social security number, driver’s
license number, or place of birth.
• If there is not a field where the supplemental information can be
added then it should be entered in the NICS comments field.
(Last 4 of SSN, height, weight, eye color, tattoos, etc.)
MECOM Messages
MECOM is designed to be user friendly and assist operators by alerting them
of potential errors or discrepancies that can cause issues through warning and
error messages. The message here shows that there is a match based on
demographics to the person being entered.
MECOM Messages
The message that appears here is notifying you that the person you are
entering is under 12 years of age so you can verify the DOB before
continuing.
MECOM Messages
MECOM will prevent you from continuing to the next step if required
information is missing. Remember that name, race, sex and DOB must be
entered. Race may be entered as “unknown”.
Details of the court order are input here. Required information include:
date of order, statute code, county, and case number. Supplemental
information includes address of the person and any comments a MECOM
user wishes to add.
Court Order DetailsProvides the format for
how UCN/Case No. should
be entered.
Relative Information
This information is optional and is sometimes useful when
identity is questioned.
Confirmation Page
This page allows you to review the information you provided and grants the
opportunity to correct any errors before submitting the MECOM entry.
MECOM entries are shared with NICS at near real-time (within seconds).
MECOM Quality Assurance
• To continuously meet the requirements of F.S. 790.065 it is
important that MECOM records are monitored for ACCURACY,
COMPLETENESS, and TIMELY ENTRY.
– Accuracy – all information such as demographic or court action
details are correct and match the record.
– Completeness – all available information including supplemental data
has been entered.
– Timely Entry – records are entered as soon as possible but no less
than 30 days beyond the court adjudication or 24 hours for voluntary
commitment records that meet the criteria outlined in 790.065.
MECOM Quality Assurance
• There are several reports that you can run as a
county user that assists in meeting the standards of
F.S. 790.065 and NICS. Some of the most useful
ones include:
– User Productivity Report
– Date of Birth Report
– Court Action Detail Report
– Court Action Entry Report
User Productivity Report
This report allows you to check how many entries your county is submitting during
specific dates or time frames. It also allows to view the total amount of entries of
specific users in your county.
This report will assist with managing the timely entry of records by allowing you
to view how many records are being entered based on a date range. Users
may view their own statistics, administrators may view individual user statistics
or statistics for all users within their office.
Other Reports’ Format
Reports include a detailed account of entries which may include:
• NRI Number (NICS Index Number)
• FDLE Tracking Number (MECOM Number)
• Full Name
• Suffix
• Supplemental data
• DOB
• SSN
• Gender
• Race
• Date of order
• UCN
• County
• Statute
• Date the entry was created
• User entry was created by
• User who last updated the record
• Incorrect date of births
• Incorrect court order dates
• Mismatching case numbers/UCNs
• Incorrect statutes
• Not entering cases by the allotted time period
under F.S. 790.065.
– These errors or issues can be resolved and managed by
running reports that are accessible to you in MECOM.
Common Errors in MECOM
Date of Birth Report
This assessment helps confirm that date of births are being entered correctly for your
county by identifying how many records are entered in your county for a selected
range of date.
Court Action Detail Report
Running this report will show you all the specifics of court actions during the selected
time frame. You will be able to see the demographics, case information, and who
created it.
Court Action Entry Date Report
This report allows you to view the entry date of court orders on specific statutes to
help verify that orders are being entered in the allotted period allowed under F.S.
790.065(2)(a). Also, that the court order dates are correct for each case.
Florida Department of Law EnforcementFirearm Eligibility Bureau - Eligibility Research Unit
Samantha Chahin – Criminal Justice Customer Support Specialist [email protected]
Phillip Suber – Operations Management Consultant Manager [email protected]
Denita Lamar Brun – Senior Management Analyst Supervisor [email protected]
Robin Sparkman – Bureau Chief [email protected]