Tacking Problems with Missing Persons Databases
One of the biggest challenges in missing persons and unidentified human remains (UHR) investigations (see "DNA Projects Target Missing Persons Cases.") is searching and correlating case information. Although the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is the primary federal database for missing persons and UHR cases, the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP), and the National Missing Persons DNA Database Program also collect data on these cases.
Recently, the Missing Persons National Task Force—a team of criminal justice and forensic science experts assembled by the National Institute of Justice and the FBI—discussed ways that federal databases can share information ("system interoperability") to help solve missing persons and UHR cases.
The challenge is significant. For example, the NCIC contains over 100,000 missing persons cases, but the IAFIS contains only 47. Experts believe that there are at least 40,000 UHR cases across the country; however, only 6,000 have been entered in the NCIC. One of the reasons that only one in 15 UHR cases finds its way into the NCIC is because the data-entry process is time-consuming. Therefore, to help state and local law enforcement agencies use the NCIC, the FBI recently published updated Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons data collection guides that walk users through the process of comparing new and existing data on missing persons and UHR investigations.
The electronic versions of the guides, available on a compact disc (CD) from the FBI, can be downloaded to a laptop or workstation. The guides are available on the Law Enforcement Online (LEO) intranet.
The ViCAP, a software program that analyzes solved and unsolved homicides, sexual assaults, kidnappings, and missing persons cases, is also a valuable tool for state and local officials. However, data entered in the NCIC does not automatically populate the ViCAP database, so many jurisdictions do not use the ViCAP. And, until recently, the problem has been compounded by the fact that most of the Nation's medical examiners and coroners do not have access to the ViCAP.
Currently, however, the FBI is securing memoranda of understanding with local jurisdictions to give access to the ViCAP to medical examiners and coroners. Also, the FBI is developing a DVD for law enforcement that explains how the ViCAP works.
Finally, the CJISDivision is working on making the ViCAP Web-enabled. Currently, officers enter case information via a CD; data are then mailed electronically to the CJIS pision (via LEO) for uploading to the ViCAP. Once the system is Web-based, however, users will need only an Internet connection and a LEO account to enter case data directly into the ViCAP.
Reprinted from The CJIS Link (Vol. 9, No. 3, October 2006), the newsletter of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
