Justice Department awards $13 million to improve crime reporting nationwide

70 Year-Old Crime Reporting System Being Replaced

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today announced a major step toward moving the nation's crime reporting apparatus into the 21st century with the award of more than $12 million in grants to 24 states to improve their ability to measure crime and report crime information at the national level. In another few weeks, two additional states are expected to be awarded approximately $1.4 million under this new crime reporting system, the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

The NIBRS grants will assist states to convert crime statistics from simple summary counts of eight types of crime � murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and the recently added arson offenses � to a new and more sophisticated system of incident-based data, detailing many of the elements of crimes recorded at the scene by the investigating officer. BJS and the FBI are encouraging nearly 18,000 law enforcement agencies to adopt NIBRS.

The current national system for counting crimes reported to police, the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR), was begun in 1930 through the joint efforts of the FBI and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. NIBRS replaces these aggregate crime counts with information on up to 46 offenses and includes victim and offender characteristics, the circumstances surrounding the offense and the consequences of the crime for the victim.

For many agencies that receive funding, NIBRS will fit directly into their computerized field reporting systems for incident-level information to insure an accurate and substantive database on the types of crime occurring, who is being affected, and where the different types of crime are occurring.

NIBRS will permit law enforcement executives, analysts and the public to better understand trends in different types of crime, including domestic violence, the victimization of children and alcohol-involved crime, and to evaluate the harm to victims, including injuries as well as monetary and other losses. NIBRS will support sophisticated techniques for insuring better allocation of resources to emerging crime hot spots.

The 26 states receiving grants under this program have all proposed partnerships between state law enforcement agencies and local agencies to achieve improved measurement of crime, following the protocols and procedures established by BJS and the FBI.

The total amount awarded to states receiving grant awards for NIBRS initiatives during the first stage is $11,733,202 (See attached chart). The second stage of funding will include awards to Minnesota and New York, which are expected to total approximately $1.4 million. These funds should support significant increases in the number of states that are compatible with FBI standards and in the number of persons residing in jurisdictions with NIBRS reporting systems. In addition, access to these new crime data will be improved, as many jurisdictions will use some of the federal funds to establish or enhance Web-based data collection from localities and dissemination of crime data.

NIBRS funds are authorized under the Crime Identification Technology Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-251), which was designed to assist states in upgrading their criminal justice information systems and identification technologies.

Further information about the NIBRS program, contact OJP at 202/307-0703 or the FBI at 304/625-3690. Additional information about BJS programs and statistical data may be obtained at the BJS Internet site at:

The BJS Internet site is: https://bjs.gov/

Additional criminal justice materials can be obtained from the Office of Justice Programs homepage at: https://ojp.gov

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