National Crime Information Center: 30 Years on the Beat

The Investigator
December 1996 - January 1997 Issue

How NCIC came into being

NCIC: What's inside

NCIC: How it works

Is it effective?

What the future holds: NCIC-2000

By the end of 1967, just about one year after the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) became operational, NCIC had handled a total of two million transactions.

Sounds impressive. Some 30 years later, NCIC is still handling almost two million transactions--this time in one day.

Now, that's impressive!

How NCIC came into being

NCIC came on-line in January of 1967. Its pre-1967 history, although brief, is consistent with the FBI's mission of assisting Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies with their own investigations.

In response to an increasing crime rate in 1965, the FBI recognized that law enforcement officers all over the country had a critical need for instant access to the steadily increasing pool of criminal data. The Bureau took the initial steps towards the development of a nationwide electronic center which would provide that data quickly:

• Working with the Committee on Uniform Crime Reports and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Bureau established an advisory group of local and state law enforcement personnel to develop nationwide standards for the new system;
• Working with the Commerce Department, the Bureau sponsored a survey of existing telecommunications systems in order to find one that would best support a nationwide computerized system.

By January 1967--with national standards in hand and a telecommunications network in place--the high-speed computers which form the heart of the NCIC began operating with 15 on-line state and metropolitan area terminals tying into the FBI's central computer.

One of NCIC's first successes occurred in May of that same year--a New York City police officer, suspicious of a parked car, radioed in a request for a NCIC search of the license plate. Within a minute and half, the patrolman was notified that the car had indeed been stolen a month earlier in Boston. It's been said that the last words of the patrolman over his radio were, "It works! It works!"

By 1971, all 50 states and the District of Columbia were hooked up to NCIC. Today, the system has grown to more than 80 thousand law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. An NCIC Advisory Policy Board made up of state and local law enforcement representatives is responsible for making sure the needs of state and local police are being met.

NCIC: What's inside

When NCIC first went on-line, it contained about 95,000 records in five databases, or files: Stolen Autos, Stolen License Plates, Stolen or Missing Guns, Other Identifiable Stolen Articles, and Wanted Persons. The FBI entered an additional 5,000 records of Federal fugitives.

All NCIC records were entered into the system by the agency with the investigative jurisdiction--that way, everyone knew the records were valid. No one could update or clear any records except for the original agency. (That policy remains in effect today.)

Over the years, existing NCIC files have been expanded, and new ones have been added. Today, there are some 17 files containing more than 10 million records, plus 24 million criminal history records contained in the Interstate Indentification Index (accessible through NCIC). Some of the more notable file additions include:

• The Missing Persons File, added in 1975. It was created to provide a centralized computerized system to help law enforcement agencies locate individuals--including juveniles--who are not "wanted" on any criminal charges but who are simply "missing" (and who fit under one of four categories.)
• The Unidentified Persons File, established in 1983. It provides a way to cross-reference unidentified bodies against records in the Missing Persons File.
• The Interstate Identification Index, added in 1983. It gives law enforcement officers quick access to criminal history information.
• The U.S. Secret Service Protective File, also added in 1983. It maintains names and other information on individuals who are believed to pose a threat to the President.
• The Foreign Fugitive File was added in 1987. It was in response to the increasing international nature of crime and of law enforcement.
• The Violent Gang/Terrorist File became operational in 1995. It was established to help identify criminal gangs and their members to local, state, and Federal law enforcement.

NCIC: How it works

The NCIC computer is currently housed at FBIHQ. Connecting terminals are located throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands in police departments, sheriff's offices, state police facilities, Federal law enforcement agencies, and other criminal justice agencies.

NCIC users access the NCIC computer through these state computer systems known as "control terminal agencies." For example:

• A police officer on the beat, stopping a car that's been weaving in and out of traffic erratically, can radio back to his or her dispatcher at the police station to have an NCIC check run on the driver. (The officer may be fortunate enough to have a mobile terminal mounted in the squad car, and he or she can perform his/her own search.)
• The dispatcher will send the request to the state computer system--if there's no "hit" at the state level, then the search request goes on to the main NCIC terminal.
• Almost instantly, NCIC will respond with either a "hit" or a "miss." Almost instantly, the police officer has a pretty good idea of who he or she is dealing with--whether the individual should be considered dangerous, or just a bad driver!

Here's an interesting note: FBI usage of the NCIC system accounts for only about one percent of all its transactions (FBI field office personnel access NCIC through their individual state computer systems.) That means 99 percent of all NCIC inquiries emanate from other Federal, state, and local agencies.

Is it effective?

Does NCIC really make that much of a difference in the business of law enforcement? A recent survey on the benefits of NCIC clearly shows that it does. During a one-year period:

• 81,750 "wanted" persons were found; * 113,293 individuals were arrested; * 39,268 missing juveniles and 8,549 missing adults were located; * 110,681 cars valued at over $570 million were found. NCIC is an important law enforcement tool, and law enforcement officers recognize that--NCIC averages about 20 inquiries a second. And it can be--and has been--used for virtually any type of investigation. Two of the most well-known cases involving NCIC were the Oklahoma City bombing and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Federal investigators, after running Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh's name through NCIC, discovered that an Oklahoma state trooper had stopped and run an NCIC search on an individual by the name of Timothy McVeigh a little more than an hour after (and about 88 miles away from) the site of the explosion. (He was still in custody and was consequently held for futher questioning.)
• In 1968, a search of NCIC's Wanted Persons File was undertaken to identify fugitives whose prints might match a latent fingerprint taken from the gun that killed Dr. King with fugitives. The search resulted in 1,200 possibilities; a closer look by FBI fingerprint personnel picked out an exact match--James Earl Ray, the man subsequently convicted for the murder.

What the future holds: NCIC-2000

It can be said, however, that the current NCIC system--while still performing adequately--is a victim of its own success. NCIC is using software designed in the 1960s while struggling to keep up with 1990s-style crime. Its first-year figure of 2 million transactions is dwarfed by the projected 600 million transactions that are expected to flow across the NCIC network by the end of 1996.

That's why--several years ago--the FBI began planning an upgraded NCIC, with state-of-the-art hardware and software that will allow for even more changes down the road as technology evolves. With critical input from the NCIC Advisory Policy Board as to what state and local law enforcement needed, the Bureau set out to make NCIC-2000--the enhanced NCIC--a reality.

NCIC-2000 will continue to do everything the current NCIC system does, but it will do it better. It will also offer more--including the electronic transmission of photographs, mugshots, photographs of stolen property, and fingerprint data. It will have an automated fingerprint matching system which will identify someone based on a right index fingerprint when the subject presents no identification or is suspected of presenting a false I.D.

A main feature of NCIC-2000 will be a mobile imaging unit installed inside police squad cars. This unit will consist of:

• a personal computer,
• a hand-held fingerprint scanner,
• a hand-held digital camera,
• and a small printer.

The FBI will provide the NCIC-2000 custom-developed software free of charge, but police departments have to obtain their own hardware and some additional commercial software.

Other planned NCIC 2000 features? Expanded fields that will allow for additional information. Improved name search techniques. Capability to link all records relating to the same crime. And improved security through encryption, network management, and intrusion detection.

All of this will help law enforcement officers make more accurate identifications of criminals. It will also better protect officers in potentially dangerous situations.

NCIC 2000 is expected to be up and running by July 1999 at the FBI's new facility in Clarksburg, West Virginia.