Justice Department Awards Record $49 Million to Improve Crime Data Collection Reporting

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has awarded more than $49 million to states and local law enforcement agencies to help them transition to the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The funding is provided through the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) initiative, a partnership between BJS and the FBI to expand law enforcement reporting to NIBRS, which compiles incident-based crime data from participating law enforcement agencies. Nine states were awarded a total of $20.9 million to establish or enhance their participation in NIBRS, and 38 local law enforcement agencies were awarded a total of $28.3 million to support their transition.

BJS determined that national estimates of the volume and characteristics of crimes known to law enforcement can be produced by adding a scientifically selected sample of 400 law enforcement agencies to the current agencies reporting NIBRS data. BJS and the FBI have been working with states and local law enforcement agencies to expand NIBRS coverage to include those 400 selected agencies. The FBI has announced that it will transition to a NIBRS-only collection of crime data by January 2021. Currently, about 6,800 of the more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. report NIBRS data to the FBI. Additional information about NCS-X, NIBRS and BJS's statistical publications and programs can be found on the BJS website at http://www.bjs.gov/content/ncsx.cfm.