FY2018 NCS-X Implementation Assistance Program

The National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) is an effort to expand the FBI’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 6,600 agencies that currently report to NIBRS, 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 FBI’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 FY2018 solicitation furthers the goals of the NCS-X initiative by providing funding to the remaining states and local agencies in the NCS-X sample in order to assist them transition to NIBRS reporting.

Merced County Sheriff’s Office has 85 sworn & 35 civilian personnel, and serves a population of 250,000. MCSO had 61,000 dispatched calls for service in 2017, resulting in 59,365 incident reports. MCSO is not part of a consortium; it hosts its own Tyler (NWS) Brand Police RMS. The NWS RMS in use by MCSO is not currently NIBRS-capable but can be upgraded by Tyler to become NIBRS-compliant. Tyler (NWS) has NIBRS capable system in other states. Under this award, MCSO will utilized $25,000 in grant funds to make its RMS NIBRS-compliant, and $5,000 for a new server to support the upgraded RMS.

(CA/NCF)