CMPD 2016 National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) Implementation

The National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) is an effort to expand the FBIÂ’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) into a nationally representative system of incident-based crime statistics. BJS and the FBI are implementing NCS-X with the support of other Department of Justice agencies, including the Office for Victims of Crime. The goal of NCS-X is to enroll a sample of 400 scientifically selected law enforcement agencies to submit data to NIBRS; when these 400 new NIBRS-reporting agencies are combined with the more than 6,300 agencies that reported to NIBRS as of 2013, the nation will have a nationally representative system of incident-based crime statistics drawn from the operational data systems of local police departments. These incident-based data will draw upon the attributes and circumstances of criminal incidents and allow for more detailed and transparent descriptions of crime in communities. The current mechanism by which local law enforcement (LE) agencies report data to the FBIÂ’s NIBRS, in general, is for local LE agencies to submit data to their state UCR reporting program, and then for the state UCR program to report those data to the FBI. While the FBI does accept NIBRS data directly from a small number of law enforcement agencies, the highly preferred route of reporting is through the state UCR program. The FY2016 Phase III solicitation furthers the goals of the NCS-X initiative by providing funding to the largest agencies in the NCS-X sample in order to assist these agencies to transition to NIBRS reporting or to develop a comprehensive plan for transitioning to NIBRS reporting via the state pipeline. Specifically, funding under this solicitation targeted the NCS-X sample of agencies with 750 or more sworn officers that are not currently reporting crime data to NIBRS.

While the Charlotte-Mecklenberg PD (CMPD) has a history of IBR, the North Carolina State UCR Program is not NIBRS certified. CMPD has submitted IBR data to the state in the past, but the state does not then submit that IBR data to the FBI on CMPD’s behalf; instead, the state converts their data to SRS. The state is moving to a new reporting platform, NC-DEx, which will simultaneously capture N-DEx and NIBRS data from local agencies, placing the responsibility on the state program to “split” the data streams and report both to the respective FBI programs. In order for local departments in NC to successfully submit data to the FBI through the state UCR program, agencies must update their systems to become capable of submitting both NIBRS and NDEx-compliant data to the state repository as a single data submission, using the specifications developed by the state for transmitting the data. The state UCR program is working toward finalizing those specifications and deploying them out to the local agencies in the state, but the state program is currently not NIBRS-certified and is not yet engaged in the certification process.

Under the current award, CMPD will overhaul how they submit their data to the state UCR program, to be compliant with the new state requirements summarized above; this is the critical step needed in order to submit IBR data to the FBI through the state programÂ’s pipeline. CMPD will engage in a project to verify NIBRS elements the agency needs to integrate, verify NIBRS business and validation rules, modify the KBCOPS data extract software, and modify the types of XML files to be submitted to the state to ensure collection and transmission of NIBRS elements. The key deliverable will be a new series of XML-based data extract files that will be submitted to the state.
(CA/NCF)