One hundred percent of the law enforcement agencies in Tennessee that participate in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program contribute through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The state’s vigorous UCR Program and the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System (TIBRS) receive data from these agencies, then submits the data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for inclusion in NIBRS.

The FBI is planning to retire the traditional Summary Reporting System of crime statistics and transition to collecting crime data solely through NIBRS on January 1, 2021. Highly proactive states like Tennessee have been valuable leaders and partners with the FBI in this NIBRS transition effort, helping to prepare the U.S. law enforcement community for this important development. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) believes that NIBRS will be an advantage for the whole law enforcement community when NIBRS is nationally representative with consistent, comprehensive crime data, and senior leaders at the TBI have historically been strong supporters of NIBRS.

The TBI’s History with NIBRS

The TBI has historically taken an interactive, service-oriented approach to assisting agencies in their transition to incident-based reporting. Tennessee statute mandates collection of incident-based crime data by all law enforcement agencies, including those at colleges and universities.¹ But, a state needs much more than state statutes to implement and maintain a successful NIBRS program. The TBI maintains and provides the Tennessee Crime Online Portal for more than 300 law enforcement agencies that use the software to submit their incident-based data to the state repository.

In 1995, the TBI obtained the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which provided funding to increase necessary staffing. The agency also set up a data repository, mapped state statutes to TIBRS definitions, developed reporting software, and provided 100 computers to law enforcement agencies in need. After developing training and auditing programs, the TBI began statewide training. Along the way, the FBI provided important guidance. Tennessee achieved NIBRS certification in 1998.

When the TBI began to set up Tennessee’s NIBRS program in 1995 and 1996, few other states were participating in NIBRS, but those few states were sources of guidance. Since the creation of its own NIBRS program, the TBI has provided assistance to other states. The TBI Director David B. Rausch believes in proactively supporting and encouraging other states with their NIBRS transitions. In 2017, the TBI participated in the FBI’s NIBRS Initiative A to Z training in Florida, Oklahoma, Maryland, Arizona, and Missouri. The TBI has worked extensively with Mississippi and Georgia toward the NIBRS transition and has continued to set up meetings with additional states. Today, the TBI continues to strive for improvement of the NIBRS program and plans to continue to assist other states with their NIBRS transitions.

Challenges of NIBRS Transition

Each state has its own definition for a particular offense. Those definitions differ from state to state and might not align with the NIBRS definitions. Individual law enforcement agencies in participating states such as Tennessee must be aware of these differences. For example, suppose an offender steals a purse from an automobile. Tennessee could define this offense as “burglary of an automobile,” but it would meet the NIBRS definition of “theft from a vehicle.” The difference of terminology could confuse an officer with insufficient NIBRS training and cause a mistake to be entered into NIBRS. Many officers have received months of training to prepare them for duty—including training on state statutes—but little or no specific training about NIBRS. For these officers, NIBRS reporting definitions can seem contradictory to their training. To counter this problem, the TBI trains local law enforcement officers about how to understand the difference between NIBRS and state definitions of offenses and how to correctly report offenses in NIBRS.

The TBI has worked with other states to coordinate efforts toward NIBRS transition, especially states that border Tennessee. By cooperating with other states’ UCR Programs on the NIBRS transition, the TBI helps ensure that states and their communities can equally benefit from the superior data of NIBRS. This coordination of effort makes sense when cross-border crime in Chattanooga can involve both Tennessee and Georgia, and crime in Memphis can also involve Arkansas and Mississippi. Interstate cooperation is especially important for cities that straddle state borders, such as Ardmore, which lies across the Tennessee-Alabama border, and Bristol, which lies across the Tennessee-Virginia border. NIBRS contains rules and data elements to identify geography and jurisdiction for incidents that cross borders or involve multiple agencies. For example, if officers from two cities on different sides of a state border respond to an incident—such as a suspect fleeing from a robbery in one city and being apprehended in another city—then NIBRS specifies how the agencies can report the incident and avoid duplication of reports.³

Transitioning to NIBRS can pose other—possibly unavoidable—challenges such as the need to realign resources, explain differences to the news media, or gain political support. But for agencies that transition to NIBRS promptly, some challenges, such as missed reporting periods, gaps in geographic coverage, and lapses of funding assistance, are avoidable. Agencies that wait until 2021 to begin their transition efforts will likely discover that the process will be much more difficult than if they had begun their transition efforts sooner. Conversely, agencies that take a proactive approach to the NIBRS transition may be able to reduce or avoid these challenges if they begin their transition efforts now.

Training and Engagement

The TBI assists agencies by providing free regional training across Tennessee because a strong, effective training program is a key element in gaining agency participation in NIBRS. These classes are interactive and include success stories of agencies’ usage of NIBRS.

Ensuring that agencies are properly trained about the difference between state statutes and NIBRS offense definitions is a challenge, but it is vital for the collection of uniform data. Because officers commonly receive only small amounts of academy training on NIBRS, the TBI offers additional NIBRS training for law enforcement personnel, including a TIBRS overview for officers and supervisors. These eight-hour sessions are free and approved for Peace Officer Standards and Training certification. The TBI teaches the class regionally several times each year, making it accessible to as many agencies as possible. One of the first slides shown in the class clearly summarizes the distinction between state statutes and NIBRS reporting: Statutes are for charging; NIBRS is for reporting. Class participants have generally given very favorable reviews for their training experience. Law enforcement agencies that take advantage of the training have experienced overall improvement in data quality, with very significant improvement for some agencies.

In addition to training, the TBI makes it easy for agencies to communicate about NIBRS topics. The bureau started the TIBRS User Group to give agencies opportunities to provide suggestions and feedback. Administrators use a listserv to send updated information, training bulletins, and a monthly newsletter to more than 1,400 subscribers.

The TBI continues to develop new ways to use NIBRS data and demonstrate how agencies can implement strategies with NIBRS data. “To really solve problems, you need solid data. And that’s why adopting the NIBRS reporting standards was a game-changer for Tennessee,” said TBI Director Rausch.

For two decades, it has given our state’s law enforcement agencies and citizens the best possible snapshot from which to develop and execute strategic public safety plans. We’re pleased to play a part in helping other states implement NIBRS, because we’ve seen the real difference it’s made in Tennessee.⁴

Reaping the Benefits

Agencies that successfully transition to NIBRS can expect to reap a number of benefits. One major advantage of successful transition to NIBRS is access to more complete data from incidents, including multiple offenses and incident-related factors. NIBRS can be a significant factor for change in law enforcement. Because NIBRS is designed to be comprehensive and versatile, states that are proactive and creative in their usage of NIBRS data may find new ways to benefit from the data and address their own changing concerns. Agencies can use NIBRS for such tasks as planning personnel changes, distributing patrols and shifts, identifying at-risk locations, and strategizing drug stings and other operations.

NIBRS data can also be useful for creating publications to inform law enforcement partners and the public about crime trends. The FBI publishes NIBRS data annually and includes it in the Crime Data Explorer online portal.⁵ Law enforcement agencies and researchers can freely use NIBRS data from Crime Data Explorer and publish their own findings or data visualizations based on the data.⁶

Next Steps

For agencies that are positive and proactive in transitioning to NIBRS, the potential benefits of NIBRS will be more comprehensive data, increased transparency and accountability, and the ability to answer questions about crime and formulate better strategies to protect and serve communities. Agencies interested in transitioning to NIBRS should first contact their state UCR Programs to coordinate efforts and identify resources. The FBI is also available to provide guidance by email at UCR-NIBRS@fbi.gov or by phone at 304-625-9999.

Notes:

¹ Tennessee Code § 38-10-101(a).

² FBI, “The CJIS Advisory Process: A Shared Management Concept.”

³ FBI, 2019.1 National Incident-Based Reporting System User Manual, Law Enforcement Support Section, Crime Statistics Management Unit (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 2018): 9–10, 69.

⁴ David Rausch (director, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation), email, July 16, 2019.

⁵ FBI, Crime Data Explorer.

⁶ FBI, “National Incident-Based Reporting System.”