National Crime Information Center

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National Crime Information Center
National Crime Information Center seal.png
Agency overview
FormedFebruary 14, 1967;58 years ago (1967-02-14)

The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is the United States' central database for tracking crime-related information. The NCIC has been an information sharing tool since 1967. [1] It is maintained by the Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and is interlinked with federal, tribal, state, and local agencies and offices. [2] [3]

Contents

History

The NCIC database was created in 1967 under FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The purpose of the system was to create a centralized information system to facilitate information flow between the numerous law enforcement branches. The original infrastructure cost is estimated to have been over $180 million. [4] In the mid-1990s, the program went through an upgrade from the legacy system to the current NCIC 2000 system. A 1993 GAO estimate concluded that in addition to the costs of the upgrades, the FBI would need to spend an additional $2 billion to update its computer system to allow all users workstation access. [5] The Obama administration signed a contract with Palantir to develop a portal for the database. [6] The Biden administration signed a $96 million contract to upgrade the database. [6]

Records

The NCIC makes available a variety of records to be used for law enforcement and security purposes. The NCIC database includes 21 files: 14 person files and seven property files. [7]

Person files: [7]

Property files: [7]

Validity

There have also been issues and concerns regarding arrests and seizures pursuant to mistaken beliefs in the existence of warrants and warrantless probable cause based on inaccurate NCIC information. [8] Queries for immigration status have also been shown to have false positives. [9] [6]

See also

References

  1. "NCIC Turns 50". FBI.
  2. "NCIC: History and Milestones". fbi.gov. U.S. Department of Justice. 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
  3. Kirkpatrick, Michael D. (2003-11-13). "Testimony Before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Washington DC". fbi.gov. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
  4. "Under fire FBI vows to meet database deadline". Gcn.com. 1997-03-31. Archived from the original on 2008-05-25. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  5. "Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Information, Justice, Agriculture and Transportation, Committee on Government Operations, and the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives". eff.org. 1993. Archived from the original on 2001-11-01.
  6. 1 2 3 Gelardi, Chris (2025-07-22). "State Cops Quietly Tag Thousands as Gang Members — and Feed Their Names to ICE". The Intercept. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  7. 1 2 3 "National Crime Information Center (NCIC)". fbi.gov. U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  8. Hand, Patrick (1982). "Probable Cause Based on Inaccurate Computer Information: Taking Judicial Notice of NCIC Operating Policies and Procedures". Fordham Urban Law Journal . 10 (3): 497–510.
  9. "MPI Report Shows Database Errors Plague Immigration Enforcement". Government Technology. December 16, 2005. Retrieved 6 July 2020.