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SOUTHERN PINES, N.C — Law enforcement officers around the state are learning how to use a criminal database to fight crime.

The program is known as CJLEADS, short for Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Automated Data Services. The first phase has already started training for counties in the Piedmont region of the state. The second phase is scheduled to begin training in late Spring in the southeast and western corners of the state. The final phase will wrap up training in the remainder of the state starting in Fall of this year.

Capt. Todd Weaver with the Aberdeen Police Department says there has been more than one occasion during his career where a central database would have prevented a suspect from walking free.

"About twelve years ago, we had a suspect in the car with me,” said Weaver. “[I] checked, found nothing on him in the system. Later on, about an hour later, it came back that he was wanted out of Charlotte."

By the time they had found out he was wanted, it was too late and the suspect had already been released. The new CJLEADS database is designed to make incidents like this a thing of the past. The idea for the program came after the murders of Abhijit Mahato and Eve Carson

"There was a realization by the state that our systems were not talking to each other. That we weren't using our data to its fullest potential and something had to be done about it," said David McCoy, state controller.

Police officers say they are ready for tools like CJLEADS to make a difference in the field, and add another tool to their crime fighting arsenal. Officials expect to have the system fully operational and law enforcements agencies throughout the state to be fully trained within 18 months.