1. Anytown Police Department
Changes in Crime Data Reporting: Moving from Summary to Incident-Based Crime Reporting [List Names & Titles of Presenters]
National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
INSERT DATE

2. APD leading the way to improve crime reporting
Anytown Police Department (APD) is changing how it measures and reports crime data
Beginning in MONTH YEAR, APD will report details about individual crime incidents to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
Transitioning to NIBRS:
Enables and demonstrates greater transparency
Allows the public better access to APD’s detailed crime data
Improves statewide and national crime data
The FBI collects crime data in two ways, the Summary Reporting System (SRS) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Anytown PD currently reports its crime data under the FBI’s SRS program, where only summary counts of particular types of crime are reported.
As a part of a broader effort endorsed by the FBI and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to have all law enforcement agencies across the nation reporting NIBRS data by January 2021., the Anytown Police Department is changing how it measures and reports crime data.
Beginning in MONTH YEAR, APD will report details about individual crime incidents in the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
The NIBRS method of reporting demonstrates the agency’s commitment to transparency and improved accountability by collecting more detailed crime data. NIBRS also allows the public better access to APD’s crime data and improves statewide and national crime data.

3. Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Summary Reporting System (SRS)
Uniform Crime Reporting began in 1929
Uses a common set of crime definitions and reporting rules
Collects monthly summary counts of 10 crimes— Murder, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, Larceny/Theft, Motor Vehicle Theft, Arson, Cargo Theft, Human Trafficking
Uses the “Hierarchy Rule”
Since the 1930s, law enforcement agencies have reported monthly aggregate counts of crime and arrests to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Summary Program. This is traditionally the way that Anytown PD has reported its crime data.
Because cities define and often count crimes differently, it’s challenging to combine and compare data from other jurisdictions. The SRS uses a common set of crime definitions, irrespective of state or local laws.
SRS data is generated from monthly counts of the number of major offenses (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and 2 types of human trafficking)
SRS data does not count all major crime because the system applies the “hierarchy rule” which only counts the most serious offense if multiple offenses occurred in a single incident.

4. Hierarchy Rule
Hierarchy Rule - when more than one offense occurs within an incident, only the most serious crime is reported in the agency’s monthly crime totals.
Example: an incident involves a murder, rape, and robbery
Offenses recorded in SRS
Murder
Offenses recorded in NIBRS
Murder
Rape
Robbery
The Hierarchy Rule states that when more than one offense occurs within an incident, only the most serious crime contributes to the agency’s monthly crime totals in the SRS.
For example, if an incident involves a murder, a rape, and a robbery, only the homicide would be included in APD’s monthly summary crime totals because murder is the highest offense on the hierarchy.
When reported through NIBRS, however, we would count the murder, the rape, and the robbery.

5. Limitations of SRS
Does not provide details about the context of crimes (such as offender and victim demographics, victim-offender relationship, location and weapon)
Only includes most serious offense when multiple offenses occur in an incident
FBI will retire SRS program Jan 2021
STATE will no longer accept SRS submissions as of DATE (Update this bullet if this applies to your state or delete).
In recent years, there has been an increased demand at national, state and local levels for more detailed crime data than the SRS data can provide to facilitate informed discussions about crime in the U.S. and pressing issues facing law enforcement. SRS data do not include details about the context of crimes .
In addition, there has been increased demand for police departments across the county to be more transparent about crime. The SRS does not record all crime.
Because of this increased demand for more accurate and detailed crime statistics, the FBI plans to retire Summary reporting and transition to a NIBRS-only collection by January 1, 2021.

6. Need for improved crime statistics
Policing is in the national spotlight and we lack data to address citizens’ concerns about policing and criminality
We live in an information age:
Improved technology allows for crime reporting beyond summary tally sheets
Citizens expect accurate and timely crime data to support public policy decisions
APD should be professional, transparent, and accountable
Policing is in the national spotlight. Citizens have questions, and we lack national or state-level data needed to confirm or deny citizens’ concerns about police behavior. More detailed crime data will allow the development of thoughtful policies that improve public safety.
We live in an information age. Changes in technology over the last several decades make collecting data and information about crime and it’s outcomes more feasible today than ever before. The public has an expectation of more accurate and timely crime data.
Growing national concern about transparency and accountability in policing calls for more meaningful and complete national data on crime and public safety. Professional law enforcement agencies should be as transparent as possible. Better information about policing provides increased transparency and accountability.
NIBRS data are more detailed and present a more detailed picture of crime known to law enforcement.

7. NIBRS Overview National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
Reflects law enforcement operations & recordkeeping practices
Collects information on a comprehensive set of crimes
Captures specific details about the nature and circumstances of crime, victim and offender characteristics, weapons used, etc.
Provides data at national and state levels needed to better understand the nature of crime, criminality and victimization, which allows policymakers to make informed decisions
NIBRS captures information on a comprehensive set of the crimes addressed by law enforcement agencies which allows agencies to better address citizen’s concerns and allocate resources more effectively.
NIBRS provides specific details about victims, offenders, property, and arrests, and outcome of crimes. For example, NIBRS data contains a detailed account of each incident including characteristics of victims and offenders, whether multiple offenses occurred in an incident, crime location, use of weapon, drug use, etc.
The additional data collected through NIBRS also provides the context agencies need to understand crime problems internally and help explain crime problems and trends to their constituents.
Incident-based reporting provides a common platform for analytical comparisons and discussions of community-oriented and problem-oriented policing.
Incident-based crime statistics can be used to describe criminal victimization in local communities, thereby supporting efforts to evaluate policing strategies at the local level and implement a scientifically-based program for delivering services to victims of crime.
Agencies collecting NIBRs data can track crimes based on the attributes of the crime incident, not just on the limited number of crime types captured by the standard UCR Part I crimes. For example, NIBRS will allow an agency to talk about gangs, drugs, and firearms related crimes to a level of detail not possible with summary UCR data.

8. More Offense Types in NIBRS than SRS
SRS NIBRS
Summary counts of 10 Part I offenses:
Murder
Rape
Robbery
Aggravated assault
Burglary
Motor vehicle theft
Larceny
Arson
Human trafficking
Cargo Theft
Detailed offense, victim, offender, property, and arrestee information for:
23 Group A crime categories made up of 49 offenses, and
Arrest-only information for an additional 10 Group B offenses

9. How APD can use NIBRS data
NIBRS data can be used to determine:
Who is most likely to be a victim of certain type of crime?
Who are primary offenders for specific type of crime?
Where crime is occurring?
How crime is distributed along an interstate or other boarder
Are violent crimes more often committed by strangers?
What kinds of crime are committed with firearms?
NIBRS data can be used to:
Identify emerging trends in violent crime, stranger crime, crimes against the elderly, commercial robberies, residential burglaries, domestic violence, and many others.
Reveal patterns in victimization, which can help target resources for crime prevention, investigation, public awareness, and better services and service delivery for victims.
Explore the nature and changing characteristics of offenders over time across a broad spectrum of incidents.

10. Benefits of NIBRS Provide context to better understand crime
Address citizens concerns
Allocate resources more effectively
Standardized data structure for incident-level data
Common platform for analytical comparisons across agencies and states
Facilitates analysis of trends in victimization and offending that cross jurisdictional boundaries
Evaluate policing strategies
NATIONAL
NIBRS captures information on a comprehensive set of crimes addressed by law enforcement agencies and can provide specific details about victims, offenders, property, and arrests
LOCAL
NIBRS reflects how most law enforcement agencies currently collect information about crime and enables agencies to provide more detail about the context of crime. Detailed data help agencies address citizens’ concerns and allocate resources more effectively.
NIBRS creates a level of standardization and enables agencies to more easily share and analyze information and to examine crime problems across jurisdictions.
NIBRS can enable agencies to perform advanced crime analysis for strategic and tactical purposes as well as research and planning. Incident-based data can be used to describe criminal victimization in communities, thereby supporting efforts to evaluate local policing strategies and implement programs

11. Potential concerns about transitioning to NIBRS
Below are examples of common concerns, update this slide with agency-specific concerns.
Expense?
Transitioning to electronic data submissions can be expensive; APD has applied for federal (or state) funding
Additional work for officers?
Increased staff workload since NIBRS requires reporting all offenses and to record incident details (e.g., victim and offender demographics and relationships, incident time and location, weapon, victim injuries, etc.)
Perceived increase in crime?
Will APD’s crime volume increase due to the expanded number of offense categories in NIBRS and the elimination of the Hierarchy Rule
Expense – funding is available to support costs associated with automating crime reporting. APD can discuss their NCS-X award (or other funding) as applicable.
Can also indicate that upfront technological changes result in long-term cost savings once data are automated.

12. Will APD’s crime rates increase?
Do more offenses in NIBRS lead to higher crime rates?
No. The 49 Group A offenses collected in NIBRS will not replace the 10 Part I offenses collected in SRS
Will the elimination of the “hierarchy rule” cause crime rates to increase?
Yes, slightly. Eliminating the hierarchy rule will result in an increase in the number of recorded offenses in “multiple offense incidents” since NIBRS counts up to 10 offenses per incident where SRS only includes the most serious offense
Even though NIBRS collects data on a more expansive number of offenses than the SRS program, the additional NIBRS offenses will not be used to calculate crime rates comparable to the SRS. Crime rates will still be based on the same 10 offenses traditionally reported by SAPD. It is inaccurate to assume that crime rates will go up because more offense types are included in NIBRS.
NIBRS reporting does not actually increase crime, instead it changes how crimes are being counted. The elimination of the hierarchy rule in NIBRS will lead to an increase in the number of recorded offenses, since NIBRS counts up to 10 offenses per incidents, and could subsequently lead to slightly higher crime rates.
However, the hierarchy rule only affects incidents that involve multiple types of offenses. When a single offense occurs in an incident, the data are counted in NIBRS the same way they are in the SRS.
The difference in how crimes are counted between the two systems is only impacted by Multiple Offense Incidents or MOIs. Research demonstrates that the vast majority of incidents involve only a single offender, single victim, and single offense.

13. Multiple Offense Incidents: How Common Are They?
Of the 4.7 million incidents occurring in 2014, less than 500,000 involved multiple offense types.
Nationally, only about 10% of all crime incidents included two or more separate offenses. Which means 90% of crime incidents are NOT affected by the removal of the hierarchy rule.
NIBRS will only count additional offenses in 10% of all criminal incidents.
The vast majority of MOI include only two offenses.
Only about 1% of all criminal incidents that occurred in 2014 involved 3 or more offenses.

14. FBI Findings: Removal of the Hierarchy Rule
The FBI has done some work exploring how often incidents involve multiple offense types.
The FBI used 2014 data to compute the percentage difference in crime volume due to the hierarchy rule.
The FBI found the following effects on reported crime due to the removal of the Hierarchy Rule:
There is no reduction in the number of murder offenses when converting from NIBRS to SRS, this is because murder is at the top of the hierarchy.
There were 12 rape victims involved in incidents where murder was also involved.
For the 4,458 NIBRS burglaries, there was a murder, a rape, a robbery, or an aggravated assault which happened in the same incident.
The 12 rapes and 4,458 burglaries would not be counted in the SRS data due to the Hierarchy Rule
Nationally, there is a minimal percentage increase (less than 0.04%) in crime volume for rape when law enforcement agencies move from SRS to NIBRS.
Robbery increased by little more than one-half of one percent (0.6%)
Burglary increased by 1%

15. What APD could expect
Based on data from agencies reporting NIBRS, transitioning from SRS to NIBRS could result in a very small increase in reported crime volume
APD will (work with the NCS-X Team) develop a media campaign to educate the public on how NIBRS and SRS data should be compared and to explain why perceived increases in crime are likely artificial due to changes in how data are reported.
There is a chance that the public, media, and government officials will misinterpret the apparent change in crime and attribute the increased crime counts to the police administration and leadership rather than a change in how the data are being recorded.
The NCS-X Team has developed materials to help APD manage the message to the public to explain changes in reporting practices.
****Agency can also consider providing data estimating agency-specific changes based on actual crime rates and frequency of multiple offense incidents.

16. APD: NIBRS Transition Timeline
INSERT TIMELINE OF KEY DATES. Consider including information on when your agency expects to transition internally, when you plan to start reporting incident-based data to the state UCR Program, and when you plan to communicate your transition to the public.
APD should update this slide so that it is specific to your experience

17. How NIBRS Benefits Anytown (update this slide so that it is specific to your experience)
Part of state and national movement
Responsive to citizens concerns with increased transparency and accountability
Additional detail may help with making policy decisions and resource allocation
Reporting all incidents gives a better overall picture of crime
Crime statistics is one component of safety and health in our community