FY2018 NCS-X Implementation Assistance Program

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) division partnered to implement the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X), an initiative to expand the number of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) reporting crime data to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The NCS-X Initiative will support a scientifically selected sample of 400 LEAs in reporting incident-based crime data to NIBRS. BJS will be able to produce statistically sound, detailed national estimates of crime known to law enforcement when data from the 400 NCS-X agencies are combined with crime data submitted by the nearly 6,900 LEAs currently reporting to NIBRS.

The FY2018 solicitation furthers the goals of the NCS-X initiative by providing funding to local agencies in the NCS-X sample in order to assist them transition to NIBRS reporting. The Port Authority of NY and NJ’s (Port Authority) goal is to submit incident-level crime data to the New Jersey Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program that is consistent with state and national incident-based reporting (IBR) standards.

The Port Authority’s current records management system (RMS), Superion, is capable of collecting NIBRS-compliant data, but is configured to report only summary-level data. The Port Authority is unable to submit summary data directly to the New Jersey UCR Program, through Superion, because of the security configuration of the RMS. The Port Authority currently enters summary data manually into a portal maintained by the New Jersey UCR Program, which will not be possible once the agency transitions to incident-based reporting.

In order to address the technical and system needs required to report incident-based data to the New Jersey UCR Program, the Port Authority will upgrade their current RMS, update data fields to NIBRS-compliance, reconfigure the RMS security environment, and receive on-site technical assistance from their RMS vendor. The Port Authority will also procure new servers, licenses, and backup software to support the upgraded RMS. In addition, the Port Authority will hire three consultants to aid in their transition to NIBRS, including a data quality consultant, a CJIS consultant, and Crystal report writer.

(CA/NCF)