Proposed Email to ASUCRP

PROPOSED E-MAIL TO KYLE COMER AND DAN BIBEL FROM BJS
Dear Kyle and Dan,
I am writing you because of your roles as ASUCRP President and ASUCRP UCR Liaison, and to ask for
some help.
As you know, BJS is implementing the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) to enable the
production of national estimates on crimes reported to law enforcement agencies using incident-level
data. Through NCS-X, BJS is working to expand the sample of agencies reporting NIBRS data to the
FBI. More specifically, BJS will provide funding and technical assistance to a selected sample of about
400 law enforcement agencies to enable them to report their data to their state’s incident based reporting
system. If needed, funding and technical assistance will also be provided to state UCR programs to
facilitate reporting by the local agencies and to process the increased flow of data they will receive. A
group of organizations led by RTI International, and including IACP, PERF, IJIS, and SEARCH, has
been contracted by BJS to implement the NCS-X.
One of the first activities that we are undertaking is an assessment of each state’s incident based reporting
process. This assessment will include semi-structured interviews with the UCR/NIBRS coordinator in
each state (where one exists). We want to make certain that ASUCRP and its members are informed and
engaged as much as possible in this process, and in the overall NCS-X. To that end, I invite you to review
the attached semi-structured interview guide that we have prepared. We would greatly appreciate your
input on the proposed interview topics and questions.
Second, I would appreciate it if you would help us provide prior notification to your ASUCRP members
that BJS representatives will be contacting them to set up the interviews. I have attached some draft text
that you may choose to use (or not, or to cut and paste) for this communication. I expect that the best
timing for distributing this communication would be in mid-July.
I appreciate your help with this effort, and look forward to receiving your comments and feedback on the
interview guide.
If you have any questions, or would like to talk more about NCS-X, give me a call.
Thanks.
Howard N. Snyder, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
Law Enforcement, Prosecution, Courts, Recidivism and Special Projects
Bureau of Justice Statistics
U.S. Department of Justice
810 7th Street NW, Room 2326
Washington, DC 20531
Office Phone: 202-616-8305
Fax: 202-616-1351
E-Mail: [email protected]

Draft text for notifying ASUCRP members about upcoming NCS-X interviews
As you may know, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is implementing the National Crime Statistics
Exchange (NCS-X) to enable the production of national estimates on crimes reported to law enforcement
agencies using incident-level data. Through NCS-X BJS is working to expand the sample of agencies
reporting NIBRS data to the FBI. More specifically, BJS will work with a selected sample of 400 law
enforcement agencies to begin reporting their data to the state’s incident based reporting system and then
onto the FBI. BJS has determined that data from these agencies could be combined with data from the
5,000 agencies currently reporting NIBRS data to generate statistically sound and detailed national crime
estimates. The NCS-X will be providing funding and technical assistance to the sampled agencies and to
state UCR/NIBRS programs to enable them to report these additional data to the FBI. Collectively, this
initiative will increase our nation’s ability to monitor, respond to, and prevent crime by allowing NIBRS
to produce timely, detailed, and accurate national measures of crime incidents.
As part of developing the NCS-X, RTI International and the International Association of Chiefs of Police
(IACP) would like to interview each state UCR coordinator to determine the nature of the state UCR
program and gather key information about how NIBRS data are collected, processed, and transmitted to
the FBI. Ultimately this information will assist BJS in determining what type of technical assistance may
be needed in each state to enable participation in the NCS-X. BJS would like to ensure that ASUCRP’s
expertise and perspective on the state level reporting processes are incorporated into the NCS-X
development process. To this end, I encourage you to take time and speak with representatives from the
NCS-X when they contact you. They have already been reviewing state UCR websites to better
understand the process in each state and will use the interview to confirm this information and gather
additional details on your state’s reporting processes. The interviews are scheduled to begin in July.