DOC to use SBI database to trace parolees, probationers

Raleigh, N.C. — Officials said the state Department of Correction is working to tap into an SBI database to let law enforcement across the state track offenders on probation and parole.

The State Bureau of Investigation’s Division of Criminal Information system distributes information on criminals, sex offenders and missing persons to law enforcement officers and court officials throughout the state.

DOC could use the SBI's information system to make information about criminals who are on probation, parole and post-release supervision available to law enforcement across the state as soon as it is entered into the DCI system.

“This system would also alert probation officers to the fact that one of their people may be violating probation requirements," state Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a news release issued Thursday.

"It adds thousands of eyes and ears to the probation officer’s enforcement efforts and lets them make an arrest when they know someone has done wrong.”

DOC officials said they first learned the SBI database can accept information from DOC at a meeting Wednesday afternoon.

"We told them on Wednesday that we could do this, would be pleased to do it and have started working toward that end," George Dudley, a DOC public-affairs officer, said.

The effort comes about a month after the DOC's Division of Community Corrections found a number of failures and oversights in the supervision of two men charged in the death of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill senior Eve Carson.

Earlier, DOC officials had said that although the department stored information about criminals on probation and parole, there was no centralized system to track offenders.