January 7, 2010

Dear Colleagues,

 
With the passage of the new year, I wanted to take an opportunity to provide you with a brief update on the status of efforts to implement the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS), as required by the Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992 as amended. 

Since 1997, the Department of Justice (DOJ), in partnership with the States, local law enforcement, industry and advocacy organizations and many dedicated and instrumental entities such as the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA), has worked to implement NMVTIS in order to reduce fraud and theft and to protect consumers.  We've seen many successes in recent months and years, and this month is no different.

With January 1, 2010 being the deadline for all states to have complied with NMVTIS requirements, I am pleased to report that thanks to a tremendous amount of hard work and commitment on the part of AAMVA and many States, we have all but four states and the District of Columbia reporting data to NMVTIS or preparing to do so as quickly as possible.  As of today, nearly 80% of registered vehicles in the U.S. are represented in the system and we expect this number to be close to 90-95% within 2010.  Regarding verifications, we have 18 states beginning title verifications and expect nearly 20 more to begin the process of verifications soon. We expect to be uploading newly revised participation maps to the NMVTIS website very soon and will update the maps as we hear from states regarding their compliance plans.

Our partners in the auto recycling industry (including junk and salvage yards) and the insurance industry have also put forth a commendable effort to report salvage and total loss information into NMVTIS.  As of today, over 9 million salvage records have been received by approximately 8,200 reporting entities in the auto recycler or insurance industries.  Having started receiving this data less than one year ago, this progress is very encouraging.

Law enforcement access to the system is live and functioning as planned, even with access to data not required to be in NMVTIS, such as vehicles reported stolen in Mexico.

With consumers, states, law enforcement and others having access to the data within the system, and having so many states providing data, we have all reached a key milestone and what I hope we can all agree on is a "shared success."  Earlier today, the Department of Justice's main website included a blog feature on NMVTIS, emphasizing the Department's strong support for consumer protection and preventing vehicle-related crimes.  I encourage you to view the blog at http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/archives/504.

We will continue our efforts to work closely with all of our partners and stakeholders on NMVTIS to ensure full compliance as quickly as possible, and look forward to greater successes and collaboration in 2010.  Feel free to visit www.vehiclehistory.gov for the latest on NMVTIS, and I encourage you to link to this site from your own web pages as a show of support for NMVTIS.

With best regards and in appreciation for your support on our efforts to protect consumers and reduce and prevent crime,