FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division


 * Not to be confused with the Criminal Justice Information Services of Scotland.

The Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS) is a division of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The CJIS was established in February 1992 and it is the largest division in the FBI.

A computerized criminal justice information system that is a counterpart of FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is centralised in Washington D.C., and is maintained by Department of Justice (DOJ) in each state. It is available to authorized local, state, and federal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies via any of the three law enforcement communication systems – National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS), a more localised state criminal information system (name varies by state), and the International Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (INLETS). Usually CJIS offers a much wider range of information nationwide and more precise inquiry search parameters than NCIC. CJIS consists of several databases and one subsystem, and its retrieval and update capabilities are online.

CJIS Overview
The CJIS Division is the largest division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is located in a half million square foot main facility on a 986 acre (4.0 km²) tract North of Clarksburg, West Virginia. CJIS services located at this site include the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), Law Enforcement Online (LEO), National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), Uniform Crime Reporting Program/National Incident-Based Reporting System (UCR/NIBRS), and Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx).

The mission of CJIS is to reduce terrorist and criminal activities by maximizing the ability to provide timely and relevant criminal justice information to the FBI and to qualified law enforcement, criminal justice, civilian, academic, employment, and licensing agencies concerning individuals, stolen property, criminal organizations and activities, and other law enforcement related data.

Here, statisticians are compiling vast amounts of data from law enforcement into a series of regular reports detailing the state of crime in communities across the country. The world's largest repository of criminal fingerprints and history records is being searched in a flash by investigators and police professionals working to catch crooks and terrorists.

That's just the beginning of what goes on at CJIS—the Criminal Justice Information Services Division—home to an array of services that are a lifeline to law enforcement and a cornerstone of protecting the nation.