$6.3 million awarded to promote use of title database

The Department of Justice announced that nearly $6.3 million in 2010 funding was awarded to 6 jurisdictions and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) for the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS).

The District of Columbia, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas and Oregon will receive up to $100,000 each to assist with their participation in NMVTIS. AAMVA will receive $5.7 million to support the continued implementation of NMVTIS and AAMVA’s responsibilities as the NMVTIS operator.

The Department’s Office of Justice Programs, through its Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation manage NMVTIS. This system, which is available to the public, law enforcement, and others, is an electronic system used to verify vehicle information in the following key areas:

• Current state of title and last title date
• Brand history
• Odometer reading
• Total loss history
• Salvage history

The NMVTIS system, available at www.vehiclehistory.gov, provides short, concise reports; however, it does not include vehicle repair histories, recall information, and other care and maintenance data.

“NMVTIS is unique because federal law requires more than 8,000 insurance carriers, auto recyclers, junk yards and salvage yards to regularly report salvage vehicle data so it can be included in this publicly available system, which currently has nearly 22 million salvage or total loss records,” explained James H. Burch, II, BJA’s acting director.