UCR to NIBRS Transition Project for the Napa Police Department

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 6,600 agencies that currently report to NIBRS, 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. The FY2018 solicitation furthers the goals of the NCS-X initiative by providing funding to the remaining states and local agencies in the NCS-X sample in order to assist them transition to NIBRS reporting.

The Napa Police Department (NPD) has historically used Hexagon/Intergraph’s ILEADS records management system (RMS). However, ILEADS is nearing its product end of life date, such that ILEADS will no longer be enhanced and/or updated by the vendor. NPD must seek a new RMS product in order to become NIBRS compliant. The NPD is part of a multi-agency consortium that shares a RMS with the Napa Sheriff’s Department and its contract agencies. Any transition to a NIBRS compliant RMS system will include the partner agencies.

Utilizing grant funds, NPD will evaluate the current RMS system needs, release an RFP to find a new RMS product, and implement the chosen software. This will mitigate a serious issue identified during the NCS-X readiness assessment by the NCS-X team, which revealed the ILEADS RMS does not have the ability to report NIBRS data in the current configuration. NPD subject matter experts, along with a qualified contractor, will work closely with BJS, the NCS-X implementation team, and the state UCR Program to align the RMS with both California and national reporting requirements.

The applicant is requesting $1,008,000 in total:
• $8,000 allocated to offset server costs,
• $800,000 for the NIBRS module of the new RMS, and
• $200,000 for contract technical support for acquiring and implementing the new RMS.

(CA/NCF)