NCJ Number
140910
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1993) Pages: 13-22
Date Published
1993
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Because the effectiveness of the missing and unidentified persons matching program of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) has been questioned for many years, this study tested the reliability of the Center's matching system using actual cases in the State of Washington.
Abstract
The NCIC program was established to assist in the identification of unidentified deceased individuals, as mandated by the Missing Children Act of 1982. Testing of the NCIC's matching system began in March 1991 using four actual cases that had been identified successfully with computer- aided postmortem identification (CAPMI). The CAPMI program uses a search routine to rank all records in a file as to the number of dental matches, possible matches, and mismatches. All dental records received by the Washington State Patrol are entered in NCIC and CAPMI. When entered with the original information provided by investigating agencies, none of the four test cases were matched successfully. It was determined that NCIC's normal search routine to generate accurate matches between missing and unidentified remains is not totally reliable. Nonetheless, as the only system available that links investigating agencies throughout the United States, the NCIC matching system provides a central repository for missing and unidentified persons information. 6 references and 9 tables