Adopted at the 122nd Annual Conference
Chicago, Illinois
October 2015

Modernizing Nationwide Crime Reporting and Updating Data To Be Collected To More Accurately Reflect Current Crime and Other Data Such As Use of Force By and Against Police

Submitted by: Research Advisory Committee and Victim Services Committee
RAC.002.t15

WHEREAS, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), in collaboration with the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCC), National Sheriffs' Association (NSA), and Major County Sheriffs' Association (MCSA), has recognized the need to modernize crime reporting and to update data to be collected to more accurately reflect current crime and other data such as use of force by and against police, and

WHEREAS, the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program established in 1929 is in need of modernization and in recent years has been gradually transitioning from the Summary Reporting System (SRS) to the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and

WHEREAS, the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) provides agencies with critical information needed for law enforcement administration, operation, and management, as well as provides more enhanced data resources for government leaders, community advocates, researchers, and others outside of the justice system, and

WHEREAS, the IACP has been an active leader in the development and the long - term support of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, which was originally developed to provide a standardized summary reporting process for tracking serious crime at the national, state, and local levels, and

WHEREAS, NIBRS addresses the major limitations of the summary UCR data by providing detail on the victim and offender demographics, the relationship between victims and offenders, weapon use, victim injury, crime location, incident time/day, and arrest outcomes, and

WHEREAS, over 6,500 agencies already regularly report to NIBRS representing 34 states (16 of which are complete NIBRS reporters), and

WHEREAS, it is recognized that the current FBI UCR SRS does not collect data that adequately reflects modern crime and related activities nor does it share crime reporting and related data on a real time basis in the manner of transparency expected by the nation's law enforcement agencies and citizens we serve, and

WHEREAS, one of the major benefits of NIBRS conversion for law enforcement agencies is the increased transparency associated with participating in a standardized program that captures high-quality and detailed crime data for the agency and for the community, and

WHEREAS, when an agency converts from Summary UCR to NIBRS there is a perception that reported crime rates will increase due to the removal of the hierarchy rule that only applies the most serious offense in Summary UCR and a greater level of reporting specificity in NIBRS that covers 49 total offenses versus 10 crime categories in Summary UCR. However, departments with long-term NIBRS experience have not reported significant problems or public scrutiny associated with perceived changes in crime reporting. Furthermore, FBI and BJS reports have found that over 90% of all incidents in NIBRS contain only one offense per incident and that NIBRS reporting does not result in significant increases in agency crime rates, and

WHEREAS, NIBRS provides more specific details on crime which includes data about the victims, offenders, property, and arrests along with elements for each offense, and

WHEREAS, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the FBI, the IACP, and other organizations are partnering on an initiative called the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) to identify the resources and funding required for NIBRS conversion for a statistically-representative sample of 400 additional U.S. agencies, including the nation's largest 72 agencies, and

WHEREAS, NCS-X will serve as a critical step forward in the nation's plans for improving the range and quality of information available on crime within and across U.S. communities, and

WHEREAS, the IACP recommends full support for the NCS-X project, which is targeted towards moving 400 key agencies to NIBRS, and for full NIBRS participation by law enforcement agencies across the country, and

WHEREAS, the IACP actively supports the goal of a 5 year retirement of the UCR Summary Reporting System and a planned transition to a NIBRS-only collection system, with a three year re=assessment of the progress of the transition, and

WHEREAS, the IACP strongly encourages ongoing federal resources to support the necessary needs for local and state law enforcement agencies that are required to ensure they can report the required NIBRS data with minimum burden and that processes can be developed so that reporting agencies themselves can see more direct benefits from NIBRS participation by way of analytic tools and innovations in incident-based analysis; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the IACP supports the efforts of the NCS-X project, the Crime Indicators Working Group (CIWG), the FBI CJIS Advisory Policy Board (APB), BJS, the FBI and others, as they work together to develop additional data to be collected that will more adequately reflect modern crime elements and to develop data to be collected such as use of force by and against police.