NCIC Validations Done Right

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What are NCIC validations?

The FBI has operated the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) since 1967 to provide a timely and accurate database of criminal justice information to authorized personnel. Individual law enforcement agencies enter information on stolen property, missing persons, wanted persons (fugitives), protection orders, sex offenders, and more.
Validations are the process whereby agencies confirm their entries are complete, accurate, and still outstanding or active. Validations are done monthly on a rolling basis based on the date of entry. Most validations occur 60-90 days after entry, and then any person file (wanted, missing, unidentified, protection order, etc.) is validated annually after that.

Why do NCIC validations matter?

Validations are crucial to ensuring that NCIC is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. The accuracy of records is an integral part of the system. Maintaining accurate files will ensure officer safety and mean more apprehensions and recoveries will be made.

Getting validations right

Agencies must have written policies/procedures for validations in addition to extensively documenting validation efforts including what was done to complete the validation of the individual record, who was contacted, and how. Documentation of phone calls, emails, letters, dates, and dispositions need to be included with each record that is validated. 

An entry can be validated as-is, modified, or removed from the system if it is no longer active. The purpose of a modification message is to add, delete, or change a portion of data which is part of a record. Modifications are often done in an effort to pack the record with additional information that may not have been available at the initial time of entry or to correct errors. 

What are the consequences of not doing validations right?

While validations may seem tedious and boring, they are essential to make sure that someone is not apprehended based on outdated information. For example, if someone has already been arrested on a warrant, but the warrant wasn’t removed from NCIC, that person could be subject to re-arrest on the same warrant. Validations serve as a check and balance mechanism to ensure this doesn’t happen.

If a record is due for validation, and the agency fails to validate it in time, the record will be purged from NCIC. If that entry was indeed still valid, it would then need to manually be re-entered into NCIC after having been purged.

Not only do validations help ensure that information in NCIC is timely and accurate, but they can also serve as important investigative leads. For example, a stolen article comes due for validation. As part of the validation efforts, the agency contacts the original reporting party, who advises that they were able to self-recover the stolen article. Information such as how, when, and where the reporting party recovered their article is exactly the kind of lead an investigator needs to complete an investigation.

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How PRI Can Help

Join PRI as we launch a new live training focused on doing NCIC Validations the right way: “Avoid a Risk: How To Do Validations Right!“ 

Since 2008, PRI has specialized in government and public safety records and information management operations. As a highly specialized professional services firm, we provide training and consulting solutions centered around the procurement and implementation of technology and the proper management of agency records. Contact us for help with our expert services including needs assessments, RFPs, records management, and technology integration.