National Crime Information Center
Stationed at State Police Headquarters and assigned to the Justice Information Bureau, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Unit plays an integral role in the exchange of data between the law enforcement community and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The transmission of data over secure networks provides the most up-to-date information. The system, known as SPOTS, is deployed to over 150 law enforcement agencies statewide with additions made regularly.
The goals of the NCIC Unit are to protect the general public and keep law enforcement safe. NCIC makes centralized crime data immediately available to the criminal justice agencies throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. Some of the entries made include wanted persons, missing persons, stolen vehicles, stolen guns, protection orders, and records of sexual offenders and their whereabouts. The success of the NCIC Unit depends on patrol officers, investigators, judges, prosecutors, corrections officers and other criminal justice agency officials using the information in day-to-day operations to assist in the recovery of persons and property.
As mandated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the unit performs compliance audits to identify record availability, accuracy and completeness. Persons and property that are queried in both NCIC and the state database are used to show probable cause in an arrest or recovery of property. The unit strives for new and innovative ways to process this information and return it to the user within seconds of the initial query.
Unit personnel also provide specialty instruction to various federal, state, county and local agencies to better inform dispatchers and officers of the FBI updates and system changes as they occur.