Increasing Access to Statistical Data in Tennessee - SJS FFY 2016

The State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program is designed to maintain and enhance each state's capacity to address criminal justice issues through collection and analysis of data. The SJS Program provides support to each state to coordinate and conduct statistical activities within the state, conduct research to estimate impacts of legislative and policy changes, and serve as a liaison in assisting BJS to gather data from respondent agencies within their states.

The Tennessee Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) located within the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), was established by Executive Order and mandated by legislation to act as a clearinghouse for statewide criminal justice statistics and to operate the statewide Uniform Crime Reporting Program. The broad goals of the SAC are: 1) act as a central coordination point for federal support, with technical assistance available to help criminal justice agencies in the statistical analysis process; 2) coordinate the flow and exchange of information statistics for all criminal justice agencies in the state; 3) locate, utilize, and coordinate resource personnel to provide expertise to criminal justice agencies on developments in criminal justice statistics and to assist these agencies in the development of public policy; and, 4) continue to design, create, and coordinate the development and management of databases for statistical information for both state and local criminal justice agencies and policymakers to improve the decision making process. The SAC continues to operate under the supervision of a Director with assistance from statistical analysts and law enforcement coordinators.

Under this award, the Tennessee Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) will conduct activities under the following Core Capacity area: Increasing access to statistical data. The SAC proposes to create a report for monitoring data accuracy and quality and to create a new public website for the Tennessee Crime Online (TnCrimeOnline) system. Funds will be used to create a reporting services report that will automate the TIBRS data review process. With this report, data reviews will be conducted quarterly versus semi-annually. The report will be produced in a PDF format for e-mailing. Agencies will no longer have to wait for hardcopy reports through the mail. In addition, funds will be used to create a new public website for the TnCrimeOnline system that will make the process of locating and understanding the available data less confusing for the public. To use the current website, the public must download the reports into a spreadsheet, correlate the different reports (i.e., victim, arrestee and offense reports), and then conduct analysis on the different reports to gain an understanding. The new version will present a more complete picture. The data will be based on themes (i.e., domestic violence, violent crime, etc.) consisting of a set of easy-to-read charts and tables that highlight the major points of the theme. This new design will allow the user to get in-depth information or an overall “snapshot” of the event depending on the user’s need. Funding is also being requested for the SAC Director and Grants Manager to travel to attend the NCJA Conference where JRSA will facilitate a track for the SACs. (CA/NCF)