The analysis focuses on two features which have potentially grave consequences for individual liberties and social justice: State recordkeeping, which is essentially unregulated, and central coordination and expansion which perpetuates defects of state systems such as overinclusiveness of files and undiscriminating access to records. After reviewing concerns about criminal justice recordkeeping expressed by civil libertarians in the 1970's, the paper examines forces that have acted to keep the system free of regulation and to maintain centralized control. Specific issues discussed include reasons why initial opposition to the system was ineffective, the volume of information in the system, and its linkages. Serious deficiencies of the national criminal records system are described, including its ineffectiveness as a crime control tool, errors and omissions in records, possibilities for abuse, and access to records outside the system. 82 footnotes.