Yea, name and ID is required, but........
I can say this because, I am tha police. I work in decent sized city, with the second highest crime rate per capita in Virginia. Top ten per capita in the entire US. If a cop doesn't run a VIN for you, they're lazy. That's a b/s line that fat ass, lazy, don't do nothin pigs give people so they don't have to do work. I've ran stuff several times that's come back stolen, or people with warrants, yada, yada, yada. Nobody has EVER questioned it. Hell, I run stuff on the computer in my car that's on the hot list, just to make sure it's still stolen before I go lookin for it. Most of the time, I don't ever find it. If it gets ran and comes back hot, then for all the people at NCIC headquarters care is, you were just checking to make sure it was still stolen. It never gets questioned. Even when they do the yearly audits. It's a free service that our department provides to our citizens. The only time that an officer can get into trouble while using NCIC, is to criminally use it against someone. An example would be, if I were to run someone's info and give you their address so you could go kick their ass. Or, give you their social security number so you can steal their identity. Simply checking the stolen files is not criminal. Sorry if I come off the wrong way, I'm just trying to be informing. This is not in any way aimed at NYUK. It's for them dumb ass cops that tell citizens the wrong info.