National Crime Information Center
Every day around the United States, every law enforcement agency utilizes a management
information system to help law enforcement personnel to conduct their job. This one particular
management information system is called the National Crime Information Center. The National Crime
Information Center is primarily a nationwide criminal justice management information database
connecting criminal and noncriminal justice agencies within all of the 50 states, including the District of
Columbia, the United States territories, and certain foreign countries with an affiliation of the United
States. The agency that operates the National Crime Information Center is the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division. There is a mission the National Crime
Information Center holds up to and that is to provide a well-timed and precise management information
database of up-to-date relevant criminal justice data. This information should be readily available for
criminal justice personnel who are authorized for twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five
days a year. The Federal Bureau of Investigations founded the National Crime Information Center
database in the year of 1967. When it was established, it was serviced to assist in sharing of law
enforcement information for official use only.
Characteristics of the Users of the System
The National Crime Information Center is also a computer-based information system comprising
of stored documented criminal justice data that can be looked up by pertinent information such as a name
(first and last) and other relevant information needed. Important information that is maintained in the
National Crime Information Center is willingly available for authorized purposes by an authorized user via
text-based queries. When accessing the system, you must have an authorized purpose. These
authorized purposes include; the apprehension of fugitives, preventing acts of terrorism, protecting
domestic violence victims, resolving crimes, location missing individuals, stolen property, observing
registered sex offenders, initiating a background check on weapons permit-related, firearms, and
explosives, protecting individuals for declared emergency conditions and most importantly improving the
safety of law enforcement officials. Authorized users input records into the National Crime Information
Center, which can be available to authorized agencies countrywide and certain foreign agencies. The
queries also allow authorized agencies to rapidly and resourcefully obtain criminal justice information on
individuals they encounter while executing their criminal justice and national security duties. The National
Crime Information Center now contains a broad collection of criminal justice information that can be
retrieved electronically by and equipped to any authorized user terminal without the necessity of needing
manual administering by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The National Crime Information Center
contains a range of different files containing records given by contributing criminal justice and official
noncriminal justice agencies.
Server-Side Hardware Requirements
There are no approved minimum server-side hardware requirements that are needed to operate
the National Crime Information Center database. Here are the server-side hardware requirements for
National Crime Information Center on a Microsoft Windows platform, these are hardware requirements;
CPU 8 cores, 2500 MHz, RAM 16 GB, hard drive 500 GB, SATA RAID, and network adapter 1 Gbit. Now
if your computer or laptop has the least number of minimum requirements in order for the National Crime
Information Center database to operate successfully, you may not be able to install the other application
such as National Data Exchange correctly. When it comes to the processor performance on the computer
or laptop, the quantity of processor cores and the amount of the processor cache is important.
Server-Side Software Requirements
Law enforcement officials need adequate timing and protected access to services that offer
information whenever and wherever for halting and cutting back on crime. To bring down crime and to
protect the American people by providing tactical information sharing resolution to the criminal justice and
national security societies, the National Data Exchange was introduced. The National Data exchanges
are the policy and security requirements in order to gain access into the National Crime Information
Center database. The National Data Exchange is a system where it is operating inside the structure of the
Criminal Justice Information Service, System of Services, and identified with the User Agreement. Users
who have a certification under Title 28, Code of Federal Regulations, should be authorized access to the
criminal intelligence information. The National Data Exchange system stores a large amount of criminal
justice pertinent information that can be promptly obtained by and equipped to any authorized agencies.
The webserver will be for the applications such as the National Data Exchange, database server such as
the actual National Crime Information Center database, the caching server, version control server, load
balancers.
Client-Side Hardware Requirements
The hardware requirements for the National Crime Information Center are desktop computers
and mobile laptop devices. National Crime Information Center does not include access for access control
for mobile devices. Only certain users are restricted to authorized, vetted contractors and Federal Bureau
of Investigations personnel. Limited user access to the National Crime Information Center is only allowed
from internal Federal Bureau of Investigations networks. Certain approved federal users have been
allowed access to some of the National Crime Information Center services from mobile devices. Though,
these mobile devices are definitely not part of the National Crime Information Center information
database. The use of removable media usage for storage or transport of National Crime Information
Center information is controlled and managed separately from the system that follows the Federal Bureau
of Investigations guidelines to guarantee the safeguard of the information.
Client-Side Software Requirements
A National Data Exchange user should follow the rules for access requirements. The National
Data Exchange system is a system that is managed in the framework of the Criminal Justice Information
Service System of Services and recognized within the Criminal Justice Information Service systems User
Agreement. Users must have a user account with the Criminal Justice Information Service Division where
the provider can easily identify them. You will have to utilize this program every time you want to gain
access to the National Crime Information Center. In order for the program to operate efficiently, you must
be operating Microsoft Windows 10 or later operating system. In order for the management information
system to operate efficiently with the database, the hardware must communicate effectively with the other
components in the hardware for the system to operate smoothly. The software itself is operating on the
operating system of the device which in turn, is being assisted by the hardware. When dealing with a
database server, there has to be software for the database server to operate. The National Data
Exchange helps out with the exchange of data when utilizing the National Crime Information Center
database to run queries and to perform other miscellaneous tasks throughout the system.
Features and Usage of the System
Some of the features vary from different law enforcement agencies. There are some agencies
that have limited access and you have some agencies with full access. Military law enforcement officials
have limited access, which gives it fewer features. The users who have limited access are can only
execute queries inside the National Crime Information Center and only has the ability to make those type
of queries. For the users that have full access, they are able to utilize all of the features that come with
the database. When using this system, the system will always be monitored, recorded, and is subject to
audit at any given time. So, you have to be mindful of how you utilize this system. Here are some of the
features; filing a missing person which contains a record of an individual who is missing of any age.
Authorized law enforcement officials and criminal justice agencies are the only ones who can input
information related to that missing individual. Law enforcement officials can also input information about a
national sex offender registry. This encloses records of a sex offender or other individual who is required
to register in federal, local, state, or their jurisdiction’s sex offender registry database. Another known
feature is the Known or Suspect Terrorist file which contains files on identified or alleged entities who
have or have been engaged in a manner of organizing, planning for, assisting in, or in regards to acts of
terrorism. With some of these features, it is quite imperative on how much that is involved in what the
National Crime Information Center has to offer.
Conclusion
The National Crime Information Center database is a very powerful tool law enforcement officials
and personnel working in criminal justice utilize on a daily basis to help assist a lot of things. This is how
law enforcement officials can search for individuals and check to see if they have wants and warrants.
You will be surprised by how many individuals out there have wants and warrants. I’ve come across a lot
of individuals attempting to gain access to the military installation I used to work at had wants and
warrants. Some of them had to be extradited and most were turned in to the local police department. I’ve
seen a lot of missing child alerts, including child abductions. The AMBER alerts would flash across the
screen as soon as it is posted. Again, this database is such a crucial and powerful tool used, and I hope
you all learned something from this powerful tool.
References
Prest, E. (2019). Privacy Impact Assessment for the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
CJIS Information Security Officer. (2016). Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy.
Kissiah, M. (2019, February 2). National Crime Information Center (NCIC) of the FBI. Private Investigator
And Investigation Resources. Retrieved from https://www.einvestigator.com/national-crime-informationcenter/