State leaders are testing a new way to track and monitor criminal offenders through a pilot program in Wake County.

In coming weeks, law enforcement officers and criminal justice professionals will begin using Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Automated Data Services (CJLEADS).

The system is to be a comprehensive database of records from different agencies, including court, warrant, probation, and parole information. Throughout the summer, project developers plan to incorporate other data including juvenile court, sex offender, and DMV information.

Right now, officers, prosecutors, and judges sometimes have to check multiple sources to get a full snapshot of an offenders' history.

"This is going to make a big impact on the law enforcement community around the state," said Wyatt Pettengill an assistant special agent for the State Bureau of Investigations. "We just want to minimize the number of times that folks may fall through the crack. That's our job."

Users of the system will also be able to track individual offenders through an alert system.

CJLEADS will not be available to the public. Users in criminal justice and law enforcement fields will only be able to see the information pertinent to their job duties, said Kay Meyer, project director.

"So if I'm a district court judge, I might see different data than if I was a juvenile court counselor or if I'm a law enforcement officer," Meyer said. "We have security at several levels."

Lawmakers want CJLEADS to be fully operational in Wake County by the end of the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The system will later be rolled out across the state.