If you look at the benefits of the NIBRS system and you look at the detailed information that you have, the ability to do better crime analysis, the more timely information that you have.  The benefits far outweigh the negatives.

~Chief J. Thomas Manger, Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Department

Since 1930, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program has collected crime data through the Summary Reporting System (SRS), compiling and reporting total figures on key categories of crimes from participating law enforcement agencies.  On January 1, 2021, the FBI will retire the SRS and transition to the UCR Program’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS is a more robust database that takes UCR Program data to the next level by capturing wide-ranging details on crime incidents and separate offenses within the same incident, including information on victims, known offenders, relationships between victims and offenders, arrestees, and property.  Law enforcement agencies around the country have started making the transition to NIBRS and are already seeing the benefits.  The video below highlights agencies that are implementing NIBRS.

Law enforcement is increasingly expected to ground policies and practices in evidence, and evidence-based policing is rightfully encouraged as the new gold standard of practice. Somewhat absent from the discussion, however, has been the reality that most law enforcement agencies lack the capacity to identify and incorporate research results into policy and practice.

To support these officers and acknowledge their unique role in advancing the law enforcement profession, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has partnered with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to create the Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) Scholars program and the LEADS Agencies program. The goal of both programs is to empower law enforcement agencies throughout the country to answer many of their own research questions and to proactively integrate existing research into their policies and practices.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released its annual report on Indian country investigations and prosecutions. The report showed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) closed 12.5 percent more investigations in 2017 than in 2016 and that 79.5 percent of Indian country criminal investigations opened by the FBI were referred for prosecution.

The majority of criminal offenses committed, investigated, and prosecuted in Tribal communities are adjudicated in Tribal justice systems. In much of Indian country, Tribal law enforcement and Tribal justice systems hold criminals accountable, protect victims, provide youth prevention and intervention programs, and confront precursors to crime, such as alcohol and substance abuse. These efforts are often in partnership with federal agencies or accomplished with support from federal programs and federal funding opportunities.

The Nationwide Crime Analysis Capability Building Project was initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), to identify and evaluate promising practices to assist jurisdictions in enhancing their crime analysis capacity.  This toolkit provides resources from three real time crime center sites—Charlotte–Mecklenburg, North Carolina; Cleveland, Ohio; and Tempe, Arizona—and publicly available crime analysis resources that can help advance criminal justice decision making and enhance the impact of crime analysis. The toolkit was designed to enable users to explore resources and refine their approaches.

BJA is leading an effort to review the toolkit and identify new resources that should be included.  The link below provides access to the current resource.  If you have recommendations for resources to include or comments on existing content, please email cicc@iir.com. 

The Police Data Initiative (PDI), managed by the National Police Foundation through funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, promotes the use of open data to encourage joint problem-solving, innovation, enhanced understanding, and accountability between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. 

The Police Foundation recently released a five-part Best Practices Guide series, covering topics that reflect the process of developing and releasing open data for the first time through real-word examples.  Topics include creating a data plan and choosing types of data sets to release, creating new open data sets, sharing open data sets with the community, regularly updating data, and using open data as an opportunity for further community engagement.