[2] The database has been described by DEA as a "pointer index" by which records on millions of individuals, many with no criminal history, can be reviewed quickly to locate complete reports on a subject of interest, their address or phone number.
[1][2] A NADDIS check is the first step in any criminal drug inquiry and reveals the existence of any prior reports of investigation or mention in any file of an individual, business, airfield, plane, vessel or phone number.
NADDIS is likely to be included in the datasets of the more than 53 government agencies now contributing records to FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse (IDW) and the DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement Pattern Analysis and Information Collection (ICEPIC) system.
NADDIS is becoming an even more significant contributor to the intelligence community's (IC) datamarts for federal and international agencies' characterization of nascent and existing major violent narcotics organizations linked to terrorism.
NADDIS through FOIA now is accessible to criminal justice policy researchers concerned with selective enforcement methods, violent crime demographics, drug epidemics and the impact of information-sharing on personal privacy and civil liberties.