Thursday, January 29, 2009

DOJ Unveils Auto Database Amid Controversy

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.