State Controller David McCoy was in Smithfield recently to train local law enforcement in how to use a new database called Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Automated Data Services. The system is designed to put in one location all of the motor-vehicle, criminal and other public records used by law enforcement.

McCoy said the system's been in the works since 2008, when convicted felons kidnapped and murdered UNC-Chapel Hill's student body president, Eve Carson. The two men charged were on probation but weren't being monitored properly.

"This program grew out of the deaths of Eve Carson and (murdered Duke University student) Abhijit Mahato and the General Assembly's desire to get all the data systems that we have," McCoy said.

The system allows police officers and court officials to pull up former addresses, prison terms, probation data and criminal charges. The system also offers warnings for dangerous people, such as gang membership or a note to "approach with caution." Probation officers can add their charges to a "watch list" that provides new arrests instantly.

The $9 million database is rolling out county by county, and it will be statewide within a year. "To me, it's money that's very, very well spent," McCoy said.

The information was available before, but law-enforcement officers had to check seven different databases, McCoy said.

So far, the system has helped police identify a lost Alzheimer's patient who couldn't remember his own name but gave police his son's name. Also, Holly Springs police used the system to make an arrest in a case in which they had only a first name and a Facebook photo of their suspect.