Interview Script

NCS-X State UCR/NIBRS Coordinator Interview
Introductory Phone Script
Hello! My name is ______________ and I am calling from [RTI/IACP] on behalf of the Bureau of Justice
Statistics. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in collaboration with the FBI is implementing a new
initiative titled the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) to increase reporting to the National
Incident Based Reporting System in order to create a nationally representative database of incidentbased crime records from U.S. law enforcement agencies. The NCS-X will generate national estimates on
crime incidents and return meaningful information on reported crimes (including details about the
incidents, victims, and offenders) to the law enforcement community and other constituents.
More specifically, BJS will work with agencies who are currently not reporting NIBRS data to report their
incident data to their state’s incident based reporting system and then onto the FBI. The NCS-X will be
providing funding and technical assistance to the sampled 400 law enforcement agencies and to state
UCR/NIBRS programs to enable them to report these additional data to the FBI. When completed, 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.
An important first step in this process is to determine the nature of the state UCR/NIBRS programs and
gather key information about how UCR/NIBRS data are collected, processed, and transmitted to the FBI
in each state. I’m calling today to ask you some questions about your state’s UCR/NIBRS program to find
out as much as I can about the UCR and incident-based data that your state collects and reports to the
FBI, and understand how you process and manage these data. We are speaking to representatives from
every state to gather this information so that BJS can understand the process and possible barriers to
data reporting and maintenance. We should also note that the Association of State Uniform Crime
Reporting Programs (ASUCRP) has provided feedback on the types of questions we hope to discuss with
you today and is supportive of the goals of the NCS-X project.
Do you have approximately 1 hour to speak with me today or would you prefer to set-up another time
to talk?
[if respondent agrees to the interview now, please proceed to the semi-structured interview guide; if they
prefer to complete the interview at a later, please schedule the time with them and thank them]