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Some professional users will have full access and the ability to see all case information, while others will be limited to basic information such as aggregate numbers, time, and place. Incident creators, owners, and administrators will be able to issue and adjust access levels for incident participants.

The public will be able to enter cases if the incident creators and incident owners authorize input from the public, and enable the public incident-specific website. This will be decided incident-by-incident. Whenever appropriate, the public will be able to enter information on persons who are unaccounted-for or safe, but unlike NamUs, public users will only be able to see information they provided on the cases they enter. After entering their report, public users will be able to update the report status (e.g. change unaccounted-for to safe), but they will not be able to see any professional updates to their case.

When a public webpage is launched for an incident, there will be a simple and intuitive road map that guides the user through the steps of case entry. Public users will first need to enter their personal contact information, and then they can immediately begin entering information on the unaccounted-for or safe person.

In some instances, case entry and investigations will remain private, and only professional users will have access. Professional users will access the system through the professional landing page. They can request to join current incidents or be granted automatic access according to their incident-related credentials. Known, unregistered professionals can also be granted access to a specific incident by a “fast-pass” invitation issued by local incident administrators.

Yes. Any individual with internet access to the public portal can use the system.

Translation to and from Spanish will be built-in to the NCI application, and foreign consul notification will be an opt-in feature. Foreign consular officers will also be able to enter safe and unaccounted-for persons into the system. As public users, foreign consular officers can act as liaisons for families and under certain circumstances, they can establish themselves as the point of contact. This will be especially beneficial when language is a barrier, or when access to technology is limited.

Vetted professional users will be assigned specific access levels, per user, per incident. Individual access levels and permissions will be assigned by the incident owners on a local level.

No unauthorized users will be able to see personal identifying information or medical details. At the present time there are no plans to document injured or ill patients in NCI. There will be opportunity for health care providers to include total numbers, and when granted appropriate permissions, they will be able to access information regarding unaccounted-for persons.

A traditional family assistance center (FAC) often becomes the heart of a critical incident and includes multiple services and functions that are not directly associated with victim reporting and identification. It takes time for an FAC to get set up, and in many cases, families are asked to travel to one of these centers to be interviewed by victim information section personnel. NCI can serve as an immediate first-step virtual FAC by allowing investigators to collect vital information almost instantly through the public web portal. Families and/or friends will be able to enter information about a person who is unaccounted-for or safe, and they can enter this information from their mobile devices, a laptop, or desktop.

For disaster victim identification, no matter how large or small the incident, medical examiners and coroners can leverage the same state-of-the-art technology imbedded in NamUs. NCI will provide secure access to incident victim records that can be uploaded from anywhere. Potential duplicates will be flagged by the system for review and consolidation, as appropriate. Proposed matches will be generated to facilitate links between categories. Case management, advanced searching, and matching tools within the application will expedite case associations and resolutions. Intuitive and instant uploading of fingerprints, photos, dental charts and x-rays will allow medicolegal authorities to rapidly and confidently confirm or exclude possible identifications online.

Yes, NCI can be used for pandemics. There are several aspects to victim accounting in a fatality surge such as COVID-19. One is victim identification; another is rapidly keeping an up-to-date census of fatalities. Since NCI can be used by any number of professionals across all jurisdictional boundaries, some of the issues seen in reporting total death counts may be solved.

If the NCI incident owners/creators have enabled the incident-specific public website, effective, immediate messaging can direct the public to the self-service case entry form to relieve some of the surge normally experienced by 911 and 311 call centers. Professionals in traditional emergency call centers can also take and enter information, even if the NCI incident remains private.