Nlets is a message switching system serving the criminal justice community. It provides for inter- and intra-state transmission of criminal justice and related information. Nlets is supported by a central computer system located at the Arizona Department of Public Safety facility in Phoenix, through which all Nlets traffic to federal, state and local law enforcement and state motor vehicle offices is routed.
A central problem with the existing system is that there are no national standards defining the format and content of the driver records exchanged through Nlets. Thus, when law enforcement personnel in one state request information on a driver whose records are located in another state, responses contain state-specific data elements, formats and definitions. The requesting officer must contend with 51 different sets of driver data.
AAMVA provided a standard for the data element formats and definitions used in the driver status and driver history response messages. These standardized messages were based on the driver status and driver history response messages used by CDLIS and PDPS. Basing the standardized messages on the existing messages should make the new Nlets messages easier for Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMVs) to implement.
Nlets had originally planned to implement the standard responses in its legacy messages, but due to changing technology Nlets currently plans to use the standard responses in its new XML messages. The Nlets XML messages will use the Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM) format defined by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The use of the GJXDM coincides with AAMVA's own XML standards, more information on this effort is described on the XML standards page.
In the Collaboration between AAMVA and Nlets for Driver License Exchange (CANDLE) project, AAMVA will assist Nlets in building standardized XML versions of the Driver Status, Driver History and the Registration response messages.
Contact: Mark Pritchard, (703) 908-5790.