The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) is an electronic system that provides consumers with valuable information about a vehicle's condition and history. Prior to purchasing a vehicle, NMVTIS allows consumers to find information on the vehicle's title, most recent odometer reading, brand history, and, in some cases, historical theft data.
A “brand” is a descriptive label that states assign to a vehicle to identify the vehicle's current or prior condition, such as “junk,” “salvage,” “flood,” or another designation. By capturing into one system specific information from multiple entities (state motor vehicle titling agencies, automobile recyclers, junk and salvage yards, and insurance carriers), NMVTIS offers states and consumers protection from title fraud, offers detection of stolen vehicles from being retitled, and makes it more difficult for criminals to use stolen vehicles for criminal purposes. For example:
- After Hurricane Katrina, authorities reported truckloads of flooded vehicles being taken out of Louisiana to other states as far away as the upper Midwest, where they were dried out, cleaned, and readied for sale to unsuspecting consumers in states that do not brand flood vehicles. Prospective purchasers of these vehicles may not have known that the vehicles had been subjected to a saltwater flood that made the vehicles' electrical systems (including their airbag sensors) more prone to failure. NMVTIS is designed to prevent vehicle histories such as these from being “washed” or concealed because it is designed to serve as a national repository of vehicle brand information. Fully implemented, NMVTIS will have data from every state and will be queried before any state issues a vehicle a new title, making it extremely difficult (if not impossible) to wash a “flood” designation from a vehicle.
- South Florida law enforcement involved in “Operation Roadrunner” recovered approximately 250 cloned, stolen vehicles across the U.S. and expressed their belief that had NMVTIS been fully implemented, much of this criminal activity would have been prevented. In this multistate investigation, it was discovered that a criminal enterprise based in South Florida was stealing vehicles and replacing the VINs on the stolen vehicles with VINs removed from other vehicles of the same make, model, and year. These “cloned” vehicles were then used for criminal purposes or sold to unsuspecting consumers. Because the stolen cars and their fraudulent title paperwork displayed legitimate VINs taken from other automobiles (i.e., they were “clones”), consumers, state's motor vehicle titling agencies, and law enforcement could not detect the vehicles' true stolen status. The criminal enterprise that was taken down in this investigation was linked to many other types of criminal activity, including major violent crimes. Read more about cloning atvehicle cloning.
- In one western state, DMV clerks checking NMVTIS prior to issuing a new title have identified vehicles suspected of being stolen and vehicles with potentially fraudulent documentation and have been able to notify law enforcement instantly, before a new title was issued and while the suspects were still in the DMV offices. This has prevented crimes from occurring (e.g., fraud) as well as assisted law enforcement in investigating other crimes (e.g., theft).
NMVTIS was created to:
- Prevent the introduction or reintroduction of stolen motor vehicles into interstate commerce;
- Protect states and consumers (individual and commercial) from fraud;
- Reduce the use of stolen vehicles for illicit purposes including funding of criminal enterprises; and
- Provide consumers protection from unsafe vehicles.
In addition, the system provides law enforcement with an important tool to reduce auto theft and vehicle-related crime
Where implemented, NMVTIS has already produced results, including time and cost savings for state motor vehicle titling agencies, reductions in consumer wait time, decreases in motor vehicle thefts, improved repcovery rate of stolen vehicles, increased ability to identify cloned vehicles prior to title issuance, and improved investigative abilities. Results produced to date include:
- South Dakota and New Hampshire saving time and money by no longer requiring the clerk to manually update a state record with returned title information since such updates are automatically included in NMVTIS.
- Arizona realizing a reduction in customer wait time and the ability to identify problems upfront due to online, accurate data.
- Virginia seeing a 17 percent decrease in motor vehicle thefts.
- Arizona experiencing a 99 percent recovery rate on vehicles identified as stolen.
- Arizona, Florida, and Virginia identifying cloned vehicles by working together, prior to issuing new titles.
- Florida cracking a car theft ring responsible for cloning more than 250 cars valued at $8 million.
- All participating states recapturing brands lost by non-participating states.
- Indiana experiencing a reduction in lawsuits by consumers who were given clear titles with missing brands.
- New Hampshire's Motor Vehicle Supervisor stating that the amount of funds spent to implement NMVTIS “represents a small fee considering the savings on insurance fraud, cloning vehicles, stolen vehicles, odometer fraud, and preventing washed brands for consumer protection--all thanks to NMVTIS!”
(Source: American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators) http://www.vehiclehistory.gov/nmvtis_consumers.html
