NIBRS Implementation Planning 2015

The National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) is an effort to expand the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) into a nationally representative system of incident-based crime statistics. BJS and the FBI are implementing NCS-X with the support of other Department of Justice agencies, including the Office for Victims of Crime. The goal of NCS-X is to enroll a sample of 400 scientifically selected law enforcement agencies to submit data to NIBRS; when these 400 new NIBRS-reporting agencies are combined with the more than 6,300 agencies that reported to NIBRS as of 2013, the nation will have a nationally representative system of incident-based crime statistics drawn from the operational data systems of local police departments. These incident-based data will draw upon the attributes and circumstances of criminal incidents and allow for more detailed and transparent descriptions of crime in communities.
The current mechanism by which local law enforcement (LE) agencies report data to the FBI’s NIBRS, in general, is for local LE agencies to submit data to their state UCR reporting program, and then for the state UCR program to report those data to the FBI. While the FBI does accept NIBRS data directly from a small number of law enforcement agencies, the highly preferred route of reporting is through the state UCR program.

Funding from 2015 National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) Implementation Assistance Program will help states to develop a comprehensive plan to for how the state will create a state NIBRS program. The plan to transition local agencies to NIBRS reporting requires enhancing the “state pipeline” in order to ensure that each state’s Uniform Crime Reporting program is capable of receiving and processing local incident-based crime data.

Specifically, current funding will be used to fully design a NIBRS-compliant incident-based reporting system at the state level. The planning will focus on maintaining successful summary reporting while working to establish an IBR reporting capacity in the state program that can roll out over time to the 730 reporting LEAs in the state, with the 42 NCS-X sample agencies as the priority focus. Funding will support six (6) key tasks associated with developing the IBR system: 1) contract with a vendor to develop the full set of systems specifications for the state IBR system; 2) work with the 42 NCS-X sampled agencies in the state to understand the volume of data those agencies will provide in an incident-based reporting environment; 3) assess the staffing needs with CA DOJ to support the increased burden produced by the 42 NCS-X sampled agencies reporting IBR data to the state program; 4) develop training for both internal CA DOJ staff and external reporting LEAs for use both during the transition to IBR and for maintaining and enhancing IBR reporting; 5) educate LEAs throughout the state about the transition of the state program from SRS to NIBRS and gather concerns from agencies about the impact of the changes at the local level; 6) actively recruit the 42 NCS-X sampled agencies to be pilot agencies during the implementation of the IBR system.

The vendor will work with CA DOJ staff identified in the proposal to examine the current state of technology in CA DOJ, as well as use information provided by local LEAs about their agencies’ data infrastructures and RMS capabilities, in order to make recommendations for the types of hardware, software, and other technology needs CA DOJ will need to establish a successful IBR system and reporting program. CA DOJ staff will be primarily responsible for recruiting and/or working with the NCS-X sampled agencies and developing the training modules for use internally and by external agencies.

Note: This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law. (CA/NCF)