In February 2017, officers with the Fruitland Police Department in Maryland conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle bearing a Delaware registration. The vehicle operator provided a name and date of birth, which revealed his driving privileges were suspended in Delaware. The operator was subsequently arrested and transported back to the Fruitland Police Department. Afterwards, a female called the department adamant that her boyfriend was in custody, but the name she provided was not the same name provided by the vehicle operator. A Fruitland officer searched the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX) System, which shares the criminal justice information of all participating law enforcement within an agency’s region. Through a partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Data Exchange (N-DEx) Program Office, the LInX System connects to the N-DEx System portal, allowing LInX users access to the N-DEx System. While on the N-DEx System portal, the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) of the driver’s vehicle was associated with a record from a 2016 incident from Laurel Police Department in Delaware. Authorities with the Laurel Police Department sent a copy of the incident report and an arrest photo, which positively identified the subject in custody. A further search of the subject’s real name in the N-DEx System revealed his driving privileges were suspended, and he had two extraditable warrants and six in-state warrants in Delaware. The Fruitland Police Department dispatcher stated, “Without the access to LInX and the N-DEx System portal, it would have extended the length of the case, because we would have had to wait for the subject to be fingerprinted in order to find out who he really was.”

For more information about how your agency can use various searches of the N-DEx System to assist with subject searches, contact the N-DEx Program Office at ndex@leo.gov or call 304-625-0555.