History of Crime Reporting

Crime data serves as the basis for discussing national crime trends in the U.S. and is also the most common metric for law enforcement agencies to measure ourselves.

Since the 1930s, law enforcement agencies have reported monthly aggregate counts of crime and arrests to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Summary Reporting System (SRS) or National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Because each system captures crime information differently, currently crime data cannot be accurately compared from state to state.

What is Uniform Crime Reporting? And, why are we moving away from this system?

The UCR program counts 8 major crime types, referred to a Part 1 crimes, based on the most serious offense reported for each crime incident:

• murder and non-negligent manslaughter
• rape 
• robbery
• aggravated assault
• burglary
• larceny-theft
• motor vehicle theft
• arson

In addition, the SRS collects counts of arrests for 28 offense categories broken down by the age, sex and race of the arrestee. 

In recent years, there has been an increase demand at national, state and local levels to improve the level of detail, accuracy and timelines of our nation's crime statistics, help identify crime patterns and trends and aid in crime prevention. As a result, the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched a multi-year project to retire UCR and transition all law enforcement agencies across the country to National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) effective January 1, 2021.

The transition to NIBRS is supported by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Major Cities Chiefs Association, Major County Sheriffs’ Association and National Sheriffs’ Association.

What Is the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)?

NIBRS is an incident based reporting system that collects data on each single crime occurrence on incidents, offenses, victims and known offenders for 52 specific crimes in 24 major offense categories. As a result, NIBRS will produce a more detailed, accurate and meaningful statistics because data are collected on when and where crime occurs, what form it takes and what characteristics its victims and perpetrators have.

Additionally, NIBRS offers a statistical dataset that provides an analysis of the attributes of crime, correlates crimes with other demographic factors and offers a source of information on a variety of factors affecting crime rates, including:

• the date, time and location of the incident
• a detailed list of all offenses that occurred in the incident, not just the most serious offense
• demographic information on each victim and offender involved in the incident
• the relationships between each of the victims and the offenders
• other details of the incident, including victim injury, type of weapon involved, alcohol or drug involvement, property loss, and drugs seized
• clearance information, including both arrest and clearances by exceptional means
• date of arrest and arrestee demographics

Combined, the detail and overall quality of crime data is expected to help law enforcement and communities around the country use resources more strategically and effectively.

Technology to Support NIBRS

Each law enforcement agency has different technology resources to accomplish their work. As a result, technology needs vary considerably from agency to agency as we transition to NIBRS.

The Santa Clara Police Department's Records Unit relies on a Tiburon Records Management System (RMS) to file police reports, maintain accurate records of law enforcement documents and submit required data to the Department of Justice. The RMS is not NIBRS compliant, is antiquated and unable to integrate with the City's Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, which went live in November 2018.

DeltaWRX LLC was hired as a consultant to determine the functional requirements, develop the purchase request for proposal, prepare selection and evaluation criteria, facilitate vendor demonstrations, assist with contract negotiation and the training and implementation of the Hexagon CAD project and the Mark43 RMS project.  

NCS-X and Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program funding has supported this initiative.

Crime Statistics

Crime is reported differently under the NIBRS standard than with the UCR Summary Reporting System. UCR uses a hierarchy rule that counts only the most serious offense in an incident, even if multiple offenses were committed. Meanwhile, NIBRS eliminates the hierarchy rule requiring agencies to submit detailed information about all offenses committed in a single incident. Removing the hierarchy rule is not expected to have a large impact on crime rates for serious crime types, however lower level crime types are expected to rise.

To give an example of hierarchy within UCR, if a thief breaks into a home, steals several items and then rides off in the homeowner’s motorcycle, only the most serious offense would be reported. In NIBRS, every offense would be included in one report, provided the offenses are separate and distinct crimes and each are mutually exclusive crimes.

Changes in Crime Classification

The most important difference between UCR and NIBRS is that Part I and Part II offenses are discarded in favor of Group A and Group B offenses, with Group A representing 20-plus indexed crime categories rather than focusing on eight indexed offenses in the UCR. It is important to determine which category an offense belongs to because this will clarify whether an arrest report or incident report will be required.

In addition, with UCR, attempted crimes are reported as a crime.  NIBRS focuses on whether the crime was attempted or completed. For example, with NIBRS, attempted assaults are classified and reported as aggravated assaults. There are five main segments for NIBRS incident reports: the offense, persons involved, property, vehicles and case management.

For multiple offenses, NIBRS does not allow duplicate offenses based on incident-based reporting (IBR) codes; possession of cocaine and a possession of heroin are not permitted. In a NIBRS report, it would be considered just one drug offense.

Also, an officer may report multiple offenses provided they are separate and distinct crimes, each mutually exclusive. It’s important to remember all Group A arrests must have a Group A offense and all Group A offenses must have a victim and offender, even if either or both victim and offender are unknown.