Establish a Statistical Analysis Center in the U.S. Virgin Islands

The State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program is designed to maintain and enhance each state's capacity to address criminal justice issues through collection and analysis of data. The SJS Program provides support to each state to coordinate and conduct statistical activities within the state, conduct research to estimate impacts of legislative and policy changes, and serve as a liaison in assisting BJS to gather data from respondent agencies within their states.

The Virgin Islands Law Enforcement Planning Commission (LEPC) has established a Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) to serve as the Territory's source of criminal justice information to help facilitate better decision-making related to policies and strategies that affect law enforcement and criminal justice. The SAC's primary objectives will be to improve data collection and information-sharing among the Territory's criminal justice agencies, assess the Territory's justice system operations and evaluate programs to determine their efficiency and effectiveness, and analyze crime trends to inform policy and strategy decisions. The SAC also intends to improve the Territory's data collection and reporting processes in order to improve the quality of data reported to and enable the Territory's full participation in the UCR and NIBRS systems. SJS funds will be used to complete tasks associated with fully implementing the SAC and establishing the requisite infrastructure to initiate its data collection processes. Specifically, the SAC will use funds to purchase supplies for SAC staff and contract with Geographic Mapping Technologies Corporation (GMT) to complete work to design and implement applications for crime analysis, data collection services, and database integration. The SAC will also develop a strategic plan to identify recommended training and outreach to encourage the submission of data from law enforcement and criminal justice agencies to the SAC, recommend data collection methods, develop strategies for sustaining long-term data collection efforts, explore ways to electronically collect and store data, and establish a mechanism for all participating agencies to monitor data quality and resolve data quality issues when identified.
CA/NCF