ABC / National Crime Information Center

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, maintains a national clearinghouse of criminal information known as the National Crime Information Center, or NCIC for short. The NCIC maintains databases of criminal histories for individuals, open arrest warrants, stolen cars, boats, and other motor vehicles, stolen firearms, as well as other various databases. Local and state law enforcement agencies are able to use the NCIC to issue "bulletins" to other agencies alerting them to possible suspects, fugitive locations, recovery of stolen property, and other information. These agencies usually have specially trained personnel on staff who access the system.
The FBI's compilation of an individual's criminal identification, arrest, conviction, and incarceration information is known as the Interstate Identification Index, or "Triple-I" for short. This is basically the FBI's rap sheet. It contains information voluntarily reported by law enforcement agencies across the country, as well as information provided by other federal agencies. It contains information on felonies and misdemeanors, and may also contain municipal and traffic offenses if reported by the individual agencies. Each individual who has an entry in the Interstate Identification Index has a unique "FBI number" that is used to identify a specific individual. It compensates for the fact that an individual may provide several false names, or aliases, to a law enforcement agency when he or she is booked. An individual may also lie about his or her date of birth or social security number as well, making an independant, unique identification key necessary. It is important to note that the information provided by the Interstate Information Index may come from the agency who "booked" the individual and not necessarily the agency who arrested the individual. Therefore, there may be discrepencies between the arrest date, location, and arresting agency listed in the database and the actual date, location, and agency who made the arrest. The Interstate Information Index may also contain incarceration information as well, listing each time an inmate is transferred from one correctional institution to another as a separate "arrest." The Interstate Information Index is only as accurate as the information reported to it by individual agencies, and frequently lacks comprehensive information on the dispositions of the various arrests it lists. It is best used as a guide on where to find more comprehensive information on a defendant.


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