Iceberg Consulting LLC

11/01/2023

Question: How do changes get introduced into the Uniform Crime Reporting System?
Answer: Through the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Advisory Process. The advisory process consists of workgroups, subcommittees, and the advisory policy board. Ultimately the Advisory Policy Board votes to make the changes but there is a submission process for recommendations that any stake holder can utilize to request changes to the NIBRS reporting process.
https://le.fbi.gov/cjis-division/the-cjis-advisory-process

The CJIS Advisory Process is a federal advisory committee that gathers user advice and input on the development and operation of CJIS Division programs.

10/31/2023

The Cargo Theft data element was created in 2005 with the passage of the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act. Congress mandated that the Attorney General's Office start collecting data on acts of cargo theft. In 2006 the CJIS Advisory Policy Board voted approve the definition of Cargo Theft and include it in Uniform Crime Reporting.
Cargo theft itself is not a defined criminal offenses category. It is just an attribute of specific type of criminal acts. Specifically certain types of crimes against property.

10/31/2023

Incident numbers are an important data element to get right. The NIBRS program uses this number to keep track of each incident or arrest. They must be unique for each agency (ORI) submitting crime statistic data. Here are few things to keep in mind as it relates to incident numbers.
1. They must be 12 characters or less long
2. Only capitol letters A - Z, Numbers 0-9, and Hyphens "-" are allowed
3. Both Incident and Group B arrest numbers must be unique. The same agency cannot submit an Incident and Group B arrest with the same Incident number.
4. In the NIBRS submission flat files, case numbers with less then 12 characters must be left aligned and blank filled to 12 characters.
5. There cannot be blanks between the first number and last number in the incident number.

Lastly, If your agency is considering a records management software change or new software implementation make sure to talk about how the case number transition will be handled. A common place to encounter duplicate incident number submission errors is during a records management switch.

10/27/2023

Depending on which Version of NIBRS your state Uniform Crime Reporting program is using your Administrative Section will include the following Data Elements:
1. ORI
2. Incident Number
2A. Cargo Theft Indicator
3. Incident Date / Time
4. Exceptional Clearance
5. Exceptional Clearance Date
These are all the elements included in the 2019.1 version of NIBRS Technical Specifications.

In the 2019.2 and beyond version of NIBRS Technical Specifications an additional data element for Federal Law Enforcement Agencies only was added. That was the Judicial District.
1A. Federal Judicial District

10/26/2023

Within NIBRS, every incident is divided up into segments or sections. Not every incident will have all these segments or sections. Every Group A incident will have a minimum of an Administrative, Offense, Victim, and Offender Section. The Property section is only required for crimes against property offenses. The Arrest section is only required when an offender is identified and an arrest is made.

Knowing what specific data elements are included in each of these sections is important for officers or personnel responsible for writing criminal offense NIBRS reportable incident reports. Having a working knowledge of these data elements will help anyone investigating an incident know what data is important to collect during the investigations. It will also help anyone reviewing reports to make sure the correct value is selected for the situation being investigated.

10/25/2023

The NIBRS program collects crime statistic data by defining 52 different data elements that can be reported per incident report. When you add in the additional A, B, and C data elements there is actually 59 different data elements per incident report.

Not every incident report requires all 59 data elements. There are 12 absolutely mandatory data elements for every Group A incident and 9 mandatory data elements for Group B arrests. All the other data elements might be mandatory if certain data is present in the incident or optional.

10/24/2023

Lesser included offenses shouldn't be reported if they happen to the same victim. A lesser included offenses are offenses that are an element of another offenses. An example would be Robbery and Assault. By definition, a Robbery requires some type of assault to happen as an element of that crime. The same victim cannot be the victim of both a Robbery and Assault.

This does not mean a report cannot include both Robbery and Assault offenses. There could have been multiple victims involved in the incident. One person can be the victim of the assault while another person is the victim of the robbery.

10/23/2023

What happens when a case is transferred to another law enforcement agency? This transfer process is important to prevent the double reporting criminal offenses.

When an investigating agency transfers a case to another jurisdiction, the original law enforcement agency should remove that report from their state crime reporting repository. The agency that takes over the investigation will be responsible for reporting that criminal incident.

If the original law enforcement agencies fails to remove that incident and the new law enforcement submits a new incident regarding the same investigation, crime statistics for that area will be artificially inflated. Consider this story out of Kansas. Once the Kansas Bureau of Investigations took over the investigation, the local police department now needs to remove this incident from their state crime reporting repository.

“As we transition, we will review prior steps taken and work to determine how best to proceed with the case,” the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said.

08/23/2023

This headline is from a recent incident in Atlanta Georgia. Based on story, what NIBRS offense codes should be included in this incident report?

A video sent in by an 11Alive viewer shows the entire scene unfold as the trooper hits the pickup truck and makes the arrest.

08/17/2023

This is an interesting drug arrest out of Queens New York. Consider the conversation about time and place and think about how many different incident reports were required for this investigation. According to the article there were at least 40 different illegal drug sale transactions spanning over 1.5 years.

The arrests step from longstanding violence and drug sales in and around a park in Jamaica.

06/29/2023

Here is an interesting incident from Philadelphia. What do you think? Should this incident report be documented as Cargo Theft or not?

Philadelphia police are investigating the carjacking and robbery of a FedEx driver on Thursday afternoon.The delivery driver was making stops along the 4300 ...

06/21/2023

Establishing whether 2 or more suspects in an incident were acting in concert together to commit a crime is vital to know. It affects how incident reports are generated and crime stats are reported. Associating a criminal act with a suspect who didn't actually commit the act can artifically inflate the crime stats of a community.