THIS REPORT DESCRIBES THE HISTORY, DEVELOPMENT, AND CURRENT STATUS OF THE FBI NATIONAL CRIME INFORMATION CENTER'S (NCIC) COMPUTERIZED CRIMINAL HISTORY (CCH) PROGRAM AND THE AUTOMATED IDENTIFICATION DIVISION SYSTEM (AIDS) PROGRAM. NCIC IS A NATIONWIDE CRIMINAL JUSTICE INFORMATION SYSTEM WITH A 26-MEMBER ADVISORY POLICY BOARD AND A FILE OF 7 MILLION RECORDS. IN 1978, MORE THAN 15,000 TRANSACTIONS WERE PROCESSED DAILY AGAINST THE CCH FILE, WHICH NUMBERED 1,430,418 RECORDS IN 1979. AIDS IS THE AUTOMATION OF THE FBI'S IDENTIFICATION DIVISION WHICH EMPLOYS 3,300 PERSONS TO PROCESS, 43,000 DAILY INQUIRIES FOR INFORMATION ON FINGERPRINTS AND RELATED ARREST RECORD DATA. DESIGNED TO REDUCE COSTS, IMPROVE SERVICE RESPONSE TIME, AND EXTEND FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES, AIDS IS BEING IMPLEMENTED IN SEVERAL PHASES: AIDS 1, FOR COMPUTER STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL OF ARREST RECORD DATA; AIDS 2, FOR AUTOMATED NAME SEARCHING OF THE AIDS FILE; AND AIDS 3, FOR AUTOMATIC FINGERPRINT SEARCHING THROUGH USE OF AUTOMATIC FINGERPRINT READERS (AFR'S). DISCUSSIONS ARE INCLUDED OF AFR TECHNOLOGY, PROBLEMS OF CCH DECENTRALIZATION TO THE STATES, DUPLICATION OF RECORDS BY AIDS AND CCH, AND FBI FAILURE TO FOLLOW FEDERAL PROCUREMENT POLICIES AND STANDARDS IN ACQUIRING EQUIPMENT. FOOTNOTES ARE PROVIDED AND AN APPENDIX ON NONSERIOUS OFFENSES IS ATTACHED.