The Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) was established in 1973 as an operating division within the GBI to serve as the chief provider of criminal justice information services in Georgia. Since then, the principal mission of GCIC has been to assist all officials and agencies of the criminal justice system in the fulfillment of their varied responsibilities on a statewide basis by providing round-the-clock access to needed information.

GCIC is mandated by Georgia law and by binding agreements with several federal agencies to monitor and enforce compliance by Georgia criminal justice agencies with certain state and federal statutes, the Rules of the GCIC Council (i.e., the Georgia Board of Public Safety) and with relevant federal regulations.

The Georgia Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) Network, operated by GCIC teleprocessing specialists, provides direct terminal access to computerized databases maintained by Georgia agencies, by agencies in other states and by the National Crime Information Center. Georgia's CJIS network has more than 1,400 member agencies operating over 10,000 terminals able to communicate instantly with tens of thousands of terminals operated by other federal, state and local criminal justice agencies throughout the United States. The CJIS network handles more than 13 million messages per month in support of Georgia's criminal justice agencies

GCIC maintains Georgia's computerized criminal history database that includes the fingerprint and criminal history records of more than 2,500,000 persons. Georgia ranks among the top states in the nation, along with California, New York and Florida in the number of criminal fingerprint records processed each year

GCIC was the first state criminal records repository to have an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) which creates or updates criminal history records as a by-product of the fingerprint identification process. The current system supports electronic fingerprint submissions from the local agency and to the FBI. There are 103 agencies transmitting arrest fingerprint cards electronically to GCIC. With the service these 103 agencies provide to other local agencies, GCIC receives electronic submissions from approximately 347 agencies. This represents over 80% of the total criminal fingerprint card workload and 18% of the applicant fingerprint card workload. GCIC currently receives an average of 1,000 electronic criminal transactions daily. This real-time processing of arrest information makes current, up-to-date criminal history information available to the criminal justice community.

The responsibilities of GCIC extend beyond Georgia as an integral part of a nationwide effort to improve the quality of criminal justice information. Georgia law enforcement agencies are contributors to state and national Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) programs. GCIC receives crime and arrest reports from more than 600 state and local law enforcement agencies each month. The reports become the database from which periodic and special reports and analyses of criminal incidents and arrests are produced as needed. The database also provides Georgia statistical input to "Crime in the United States", which is published annually by the FBI and an annual summary report compiled by GCIC, accessible through the below GBI Crime Statistics Database link.

GCIC is responsible by law to develop and operate a state protective order registry. GCIC implemented the programs necessary to access and update the Georgia Protective Order Registry (GPOR) that became operational on July 1, 2002. The GPOR is an online, web-based service that stores protective orders issued by the Superior Courts of Georgia. The goal of this registry is to enhance victim safety by providing law enforcement officers, prosecuting attorneys and the courts 24 hour a day, 7 day a week access to protective orders issued by the courts of this state and foreign courts. Since the July 2002 implementation date, over 24,000 orders have been received and over 1,000 users have been granted access to the web site.

The Georgia Sexually Violent Offender (SVO) Registry was enacted by the 1996 Georgia General Assembly and became operational during FY1997. Since that time, the GBI has registered 7,993 offenders, with 1,257 added during FY2003. Over 4,800 images of registered sex offenders have been placed on the web site. As a public service, the GBI web page was launched on the Internet in FY1998; during FY2003, the SVO registry portion of the web page received 6,213,936 hits.

Pursuant to Georgia law and provisions of the federal "Brady Act", the Firearms Program provides instant background checks on persons attempting to purchase firearms from federally licensed firearms dealers. Background checks ensure that persons prohibited by either state or federal laws are barred from the purchase of firearms. During FY2003 the program processed 190,969 instant background checks from federally licensed firearm dealers. This represents a 7% decrease in volume over transactions processed in FY2002. Instant background checks resulted in 181,231 (95%) approved firearm sales. Of the total checks processed, 135,104 (71%) were approved instantly, requiring no further action.


A team of customer support analysts, located throughout Georgia, provides training and other consultative services to Georgia's criminal justice/public safety community on all GCIC program areas. Areas of training include: usage and controls of the CJIS network; information reporting responsibilities of agencies set forth in state law; training in security controls for access to data provided through the CJIS network; reporting and use of crime statistics under the FBI's UCR Program; and a host of other areas.


A second GCIC team, also based locally throughout Georgia, conducts performance audits triennially for all agencies operating CJIS network terminals as well as many non-terminal agencies with authority to access information from the CJIS network. Audits are required by state law and operating policy of the FBI/National Crime Information Center (NCIC). Audits have proved to be an effective means of documenting compliance with state and federal laws and regulations dealing with access and use of criminal justice computers and information derived there from. Together, these teams provide a strong, effective means of support and control for Georgia's criminal justice community that is comprised of over 2,300 federal, state and local agencies.

GCIC staff also has taken the lead in improving Georgia's criminal justice records. This effort includes creation of interfaces with local and state criminal justice systems and the automated submission of data on arrests and dispositions to the center. Automation linkages are being installed that will allow for real-time inquiry of relevant identification and criminal history data from other states. The center's AFIS database also supports remote searching of fingerprints left by unknown suspects at the scene of crimes.


GCIC computer programmers and analysts use their computers and databases to provide computerized investigative support to state and local law enforcement agencies. In a series of complex criminal investigations, the leads provided by GCIC analysts have proven to be the keys to investigative and prosecutorial success.