The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) established the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division in 1992 to meet the need for criminal justice information to be available 24/7 in order for law enforcement, national security, and the intelligence community partners to protect the United States while preserving civil liberties.

Today, CJIS is FBI's largest division and processes millions of transactions on a daily basis, with response times ranging from minutes to seconds. The CJIS Division is responsible for many information technology-based systems like the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), Interstate Identification Index (III), National Data Exchange (N-DEx), Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, and the Next Generation Identification (NGI). These systems provide state, local, and federal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies with timely and secure access to critical, personal information such as fingerprint records, criminal histories, and sex offender registrations.