COLUMBIA, S.C. - The State Law Enforcement Division will receive $1 million to improve its criminal and sex offender record systems, South Carolina lawmakers said Wednesday.

The grant from the U.S. Justice Department will make it easier for SLED to share information with other state and national criminal and sex offender databases, U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., said.

Some uses of the National Criminal History Improvement Program grant include:

_ Working with the state court system to provide access to mental commitment records to the FBI.

_ Allowing police officers to check criminal records for a suspect in multiple states at one time.

_ Including photo images for all criminal history records.

_ Instituting a two-digit fingerprint check process for background checks.

_ Upgrading software and equipment.