Are you checking it?
National Decertification Index (NDI)
The NDI is IADLEST’s national registry of officer decertification actions. Here is what it holds, how your agency requests access and searches it, and how to keep the check from being skipped.
How to request access and search the NDI“We are grateful for Guardian taking the initiative to help IADLEST raise the nation’s awareness of the NDI and more importantly, increase the utilization of this incredibly important and timely tool for background investigators.”
Mike Becar, Executive Director
IADLEST
What the National Decertification Index is
The NDI is a national registry of certificate or license revocation actions relating to officer misconduct. The records are provided by participating state government agencies — the POST boards and licensing bodies that certify officers — and the index is maintained by IADLEST, the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training.
A search tells an agency whether a participating state has reported a revocation action against a candidate, and points to the authority that reported it. It is a pointer, not a case file.
Two limits matter. Records should be verified with the contributing authority, and inclusion in the database does not necessarily preclude any individual from appointment as an officer. Participation is voluntary, so the index holds what participating states have reported and nothing more.
How to check the NDI
ACCESS AND SEARCHES COME FROM IADLEST
Any agency can ask IADLEST for NDI access. IADLEST approves the request and hosts the search; Guardian does not provide access to the NDI or to its data.
1. Request access
Your agency applies to IADLEST for an NDI account. IADLEST reviews the request, sets the terms of use and approves the people who may search.
2. Search the index
Approved users sign in to IADLEST’s NDI portal and search a candidate by name. Any hit is confirmed directly with the state authority that reported the action.
Read IADLEST’s own overview of the NDI
The NDI is not a federal database. Executive Order 13923 of June 16, 2020 — Safe Policing for Safe Communities — directed the Attorney General to create a federal database for sharing excessive-use-of-force information. The NDI is IADLEST’s, and it is the registry agencies can search today.
Why the NDI check gets missed
Nothing about the NDI is difficult. It is one step among dozens in a background investigation, and it lives on a system separate from the rest of the file.
An investigator is collecting a personal history questionnaire, ordering records, scheduling interviews and chasing references. The NDI search sits outside all of it, behind its own login — easy to postpone, easy to forget. When it is skipped, nothing in the file says so. When it is done, there is often nowhere in the file to prove it. A chief signing off on the hire cannot tell the difference.
Guardian puts the NDI check in the workflow
A DIRECT LINK AT THE RIGHT STEP, AND A PLACE TO LOG THE RESULT
Guardian does not provide NDI access, NDI data or NDI search results — IADLEST does. What Guardian’s background investigation software does is make sure the check is not overlooked.
At the point in the investigation where the NDI should be checked, the investigator gets a direct link to the NDI, in the file, as a reminder to run it. The check has its own place to log the result, so the outcome is recorded alongside everything else in the investigation. The link is the prompt; the logged result is the proof.
Watch the NDI video
Watch the Triage Center video
