who we are

The Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) is the Alabama state agency responsible for gathering and providing critical information for law enforcement and the criminal justice community. We operate a state-of-the-art data center 24-hours a day, providing many information systems through the state criminal justice network (CJnet) and the Internet. ACJIC is connected nationally to the FBI's National Crime Information Center, as well as to all 50 states via the National Law Enforcement Telecommunication System (Nlets).

what we do

ACJIC was established in October of 1975 by the Alabama Legislature to collect, store, retrieve, analyze, and disseminate vital information relating to certain crimes, criminals, and criminal activity. The powers and duties of the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) are defined in Sections 41-9-590 through 41-9-649 of the Code of Alabama, 1975, which requires ACJIC to:

• Collect, store, retrieve, analyze and disseminate criminal justice data on the behalf of the State of Alabama;
• Offer assistance and instruction to criminal justice agencies in establishing an efficient system for information management;
• Compile and publish annual statistics on the nature and extent of crime in Alabama to state officials and criminal justice agencies;
• Operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to assist and provide criminal justice agencies with information which will aid them in crime fighting;
• Cooperate with other agencies of the state, the crime information agencies in other states and the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and national crime information center systems of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Note: Prior to 1976, law enforcement agencies participated in the FBI's UCR program on a voluntary basis;
• Provide individuals with the mechanisms and procedures to view and challenge their criminal history records;
• Institute measures to ensure for the privacy and security of the ACJIC system meeting both state and national standards for the interstate sharing of this information; and
• Employ sworn Alabama peace officers with "full and unlimited police power and jurisdiction to ensure the laws in this state pertaining to the operation and administration of the Alabama criminal justice information system, and the storage, use and dissemination of the information processed" in its systems.

ACJIC administration

The Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center is governed by the ACJIC Commission, a supervisory board composed of a 13-member voting section and a 7-member advisory section, and is responsible for establishing the policies and rules governing the operation of the agency. Responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the agency is vested in the ACJIC Director, who works under the supervision of the ACJIC Commission. ACJIC is administered through the following divisions:

The Executive Division includes the agency administration, fiscal, program administration, and public information functions.

The Field Operations Division is responsible for training, data quality, record auditing, technical assistance, investigation of misuse, and general system user liaison.

The Information Technology Division is responsible for the technical operations, system analysis/design/programming, maintenance of computer and telecommunication network systems, and associated websites and website applications.

The Information Integrity Division is responsible for entering and matching case disposition data to arrest data in the state and federal Computerized Criminal History (CCH) database, and it is also responsible for the ACJIC Alabama Background Check online criminal history sales program (background.alabama.gov).

The Uniform Crime Reporting Division trains member agencies on collecting and reporting incident-based crime data, which is analyzed and disseminated through the Statistical Analysis Center (SAC). The division also produces analytical reports and ad-hoc reports related to Uniform Crime Reporting data requested by law enforcement, legislators, etc.