LinX Database

LinX Database

Officials with 20 law enforcement agencies announced Tuesday the creation of a new database that they say will increase police cooperation and help catch criminals in North Carolina. The North Carolina Law Enforcement Information Exchange will be built and paid for by the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The impetus for the database, which is also called LInX, came after terrorist attacks on the USS Cole in 2000 and the Pentagon and World Trade Center in 2001 showed authorities needed to communicate better, NCIS officials said. The system will be up and running by mid-July, according to NCIS officials.

The North Carolina database will be the 9th LInX system in the country. Participating departments have access to each other's records as well as those from the hundreds of departments in other LInX systems. Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous said the database will give his investigators quick access to police reports and mug shots, as well as suspect and vehicle descriptions from numerous other agencies. It also will connect local law enforcement to federal databases, including those of military police. That's an ability Evangelous said he never thought possible prior to law enforcement changes that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. "This is a big step forward," he said.

(David Reynolds, WILMINGTON STAR-NEWS, 5/13/08).