The National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) is an effort to expand the FBIs 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 FBIs 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. The FY2016 Phase III solicitation furthers the goals of the NCS-X initiative by providing funding to the largest agencies in the NCS-X sample in order to assist these agencies to transition to NIBRS reporting or to develop a comprehensive plan for transitioning to NIBRS reporting via the state pipeline. Specifically, funding under this solicitation targeted the NCS-X sample of agencies with 750 or more sworn officers that are not currently reporting crime data to NIBRS.
San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) officers use laptops to enter incident reports, with offense codes mapped to UCR/NIBRS offense classifications from the state penal codes. While the NIBRS data elements are included in the design of the Automated Field Reporting (ARF) system, the SAPD ARF is currently customized to exclude NIBRS data output based on the NIBRS edit checks and validation rules. The SAPD is in the process of upgrading their AFR and RMS software to recognize the NIBRS edits and rules and will provide TA to officers on how to collect and record additional information required to become NIBRS-compliant. Under the current award, SAPD will focus on incorporating and activating the NIBRS validation rules and edit checks in the AFR software and on creating an automated extraction and reporting program in a format acceptable with the state repository housed at the Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDPS). The state of Texas has a mandate to transition to NIBRS reporting by 2019, of which SAPD command staff and sworn personnel are aware and seeking to work toward.
Specifically, funds will be used for:
1. NIBRS modifications;
2. Services to convert incident forms to be NIBRS-conformant;
3. Project Management Services;
4. Implementation Services, including:
a. Implementation in the test environment,
b. Testing with the State UCR Program,
c. Implement in the production environment, and
d. Customer support; and
5. First year maintenance on the NIBRS Modifications beginning upon production.
(CA/NCF)
