Atlanta Metropolitan State College Department of Public Safety's Transfer to NIBRS

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.

The Atlanta Metropolitan State College Department of Public Safety (AMSCDPS) has 10 sworn officers and 9 civilian employees. Between the faculty, staff and students, the services cover approximately 4,000 people; however, there is a neighboring technical school which triples the number of people the department serves and protects. Also, because the college is located near the Metropolitan Parkway in Atlanta, the college receives a high volume of calls for service.

Funds are requested for obtaining a new records management system (RMS), as well as hardware to improve data automation and reporting capabilities. The overall transition costs include installation, implementation and training. Funds are requested for updated equipment to run the more modern NIBRS-compliant RMS, including 15 computers and 5 tough books. AMSCDPS has identified a new RMS vendor, and they have an implementation team in place to begin work quickly.

(CA/NCF)