The Interstate Identification Index (III; pronounced "triple-eye"), AKA “FBI Triple I Teletype[1]”, is a national index of state and federal criminal histories (or rap sheets) in the United States of America, maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
There are exclusions for records in III which include: subjects not meeting age and/or arrest criteria, juvenile offenders tried as juveniles, charges of drunkenness and vagrancy, certain public order offenses, nonspecific charges of suspicion or investigation, and social history data (e.g., narcotic, civil commitment, mental hygiene - unless part of the criminal justice process).
The program is designed to facilitate the interstate exchange of criminal history records among state justice agencies.
In addition to the interstate exchange, this index holds millions of fingerprint identification cards for criminals who have committed a serious enough crime to go to jail for over 24 hours.
An investigator or analyst may then query those states directly to get specific criminal history, either through the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS) or by other means.