BANGOR – Police in Penobscot and Hancock counties often see the same faces while investigating crimes and patrolling the streets.

But a deputy from each county can run a background check on the same suspect and receive different information from their computer databases.

For that reason, officials in both counties are exploring the idea of linking their databases in order to share criminal history information and records from the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

“When they do a name query, they would not only see their information, they’d see ours,” Cliff Warren, Penobscot County’s information technologies administrator, said Monday at a meeting of the Penobscot County commissioners.

Both counties’ databases operate on the same software, as does the Ellsworth Police Department. The proposed collaboration, initiated by Hancock County and Ellsworth, would include all three departments.

The cost is yet to be determined.

“We kind of got to thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be good if we also had access to Penobscot County’s database?'” Ellsworth Police Chief John DeLeo said Tuesday by phone.

Penobscot County’s system stores records for approximately 500,000 people. Its capacity would increase by about 20 percent with the addition of information from Hancock County and Ellsworth, DeLeo said.

Last week’s burglary of a mobile home in Corinth, which later led police to a suspected drug lab and pipe bomb at a Bangor apartment, served as a reminder of the benefits of collaboration, DeLeo said.

Ellsworth police connected one of the suspects in that burglary, Douglas Urquhart Jr., 27, of Bangor, to a dozen recent break-ins at camps on Green Lake.

“We’re dealing with the same people a lot of times,” DeLeo said.

The timing of such an effort is convenient because Penobscot County is in the midst of a software upgrade, and Hancock County and Ellsworth are preparing to do the same, DeLeo said.

The Penobscot County commissioners agreed Tuesday to wait for further information on the proposal, including the estimated costs.

If all goes well, the two systems could be linked within a year, DeLeo said.

“We’re optimistic at this point,” he said.