Friday, February 10, 2012

DOJ Unveils Auto Database Amid Controversy

January 29, 2009

The Justice Department on Friday will launch an Internet-based system to help protect states and consumers from automobile fraud and to provide law enforcement with new tools to investigate fraud, theft, and other crimes involving vehicles. The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, or NMVTIS, will be available for consumers and will be accessible through third party, fee-for-service Web sites. Watchdog group Public Citizen has complained the system is many years overdue since Congress first ordered the federal government to create it in 1992.

Public Citizen, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, and Consumer Action, sued the Justice Department over the delayed implementation and a court ordered that the government issue regulations and make the data available by Jan. 31, with data from private sources by March 31. Under the new system, car buyers will be able to instantly check the validity of a vehicle's title, verify its mileage and learn whether it had been stolen or deemed junked or salvaged. Public Citizen, however, pointed out that some states - including New York, California and Pennsylvania -are refusing to allow their vehicle data to be made public and other states are not reporting data at all.

Since 1997, Justice has committed over $15 million to assist states and other stakeholders in NMVTIS implementation. Currently, NMVTIS has the participation, or partial participation, of 36 states, according to a department press release. Along with implementing the system, the agency has outlined various responsibilities and reporting requirements for states, auto recyclers, junk yards and salvage yards, and insurance carriers. The agency has designed the system consistent with federal law that requires that the system be paid for through user fees and not dependent on federal funding.

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Juliana Gruenwald

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Juliana Gruenwald has been covering tech and telecom issues for more than a decade for National Journal, Interactive Week, BNA and Congressional Quarterly. This is her second stint with National Journal. She was recruited by NJ in 1998 to help launch its first tech policy publication, Technology Daily. She left in 2000 to cover international tech and telecom issues for Ziff Davis Media's Interactive Week magazine. She started her career at United Press International as the wire service's first Helen Thomas Intern. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. A Minneapolis native, she misses the lakes but not the cold.


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Josh Smith covers technology policy as a staff reporter for National Journal. He previously interned at National Journal Daily, a Senate press office, and the Deseret News in Salt Lake City where he covered the state legislature, courts, and crime. In 2009 he graduated with honors from Southern Utah University after managing an award-winning student newspaper as editor-in-chief. Josh has received state, regional and national awards for his political and policy reporting, including first place in CapitolBeat’s 2009 Best of Statehouse Reporting college competition. A native of drop-dead-gorgeous Utah, Josh lives in Virginia with his wife, Amber.