UnNumbered Potential NIBRS Quest

Attachment 3 – Universe of potential NIBRS study participant questions

NIBRS Modernization Study
Potential Participant Interview Questions
Background: The purpose of this modernization study is to gain an understanding of the capabilities
and barriers that exist in an agency with regards to collecting and reporting crime incident data and
meeting the 2021 transition from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Summary Reporting System (SRS)
to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
The transition to NIBRS is our nation’s pathway to a greater collection of crime data and to improve the
nation’s crime statistics for reliability, accuracy, accessibility, and timeliness of the data. The Crime Data
Modernization (CDM) Team is conducting an assessment of crime information collection and reporting
operations and support systems used by law enforcement agencies in the United States to improve and
modernize NIBRS.
Objective: The objective of this modernization study is to assess national crime reporting operations
and determine how to modernize NIBRS and NIBRS reporting processes to support local, state, federal,
and tribal law enforcement agencies.
Approach: The NIBRS modernization study team will conduct interviews with law enforcement agencies
and other stakeholder groups to gain an understanding of the capabilities and barriers that exist in state,
local, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies’ (LEAs) abilities to report crime data.
The set of questions described below is intended to assist the interviewer in guiding discussion with
various LEAs and will not be directly provided to participants. The interviewer will reference these
questions to maintain the scope and direction of each interview while ensuring the conversations focus
on the specific themes of the study. Based on interviewee’s responses, the interviewer may ask
additional follow-on questions to further explore the respondent’s perspective and obtain a deeper
understanding of the LEA’s current capabilities and challenges. The interviewer will strive to ensure the
follow-on questions and discussions remain within the scope of the study without restricting the
respondent’s ability to express ideas and opinions in answering the interview questions. .

1

Attachment 3 – Universe of potential NIBRS study participant questions

NIBRS Modernization Study
Potential Participant Interview Questions

Part 1
Collection of Crime Information & Reporting Activities
1. How does the agency report crime data?
o To the state’s UCR Program
o Direct contributor to the FBI
o The agency does not report crime data
o Other (Regional, Shared Record Management System (RMS), etc.)
2. How does the agency record crime information?
o An agency owned and/or operated records management system
o The agency participates in a regional records management system
o Manually
o Other
3. What are the most serious roadblocks to collecting crime information?
o Complexity in collecting crime information for reporting
o Insufficient support staff:
 Agency administrative staff
 Agency technical information technology (IT) staff
 Other
o Technical:
 Limited or no existing records management application
 Limited access to information technology resources (operation and
management of technical systems)
 Limited or no access to network communication, internet, etc.
o Resources:
 Funding
 Training
o Other
4. Does the agency analyze criminal activity and produce crime reports?
o Yes (go to question 5)
o No (go to question 7)
5. How often does the agency generate crime activity reports?
o Monthly
o Quarterly
o Semi-Annual
o Not required
o Other
2

Attachment 3 – Universe of potential NIBRS study participant questions

NIBRS Modernization Study
Potential Participant Interview Questions
6. Who receives the agency’s crime reports?
o Local government
o State government
o Other
7. How does the agency categorize crime data?
o By incident
 Multiple-offense
 Single-offense
o By crime data element
o Does it utilize FBI categorizations?
 UCR and NIBRS
 Do the UCR codes match the state codes
o State statutes
o Both State and FBI categories
o Other
8. Does the agency receive information requests for analysis from contributors or leadership that
they are not now able to satisfy?
9. Does the agency have an automated or manual process for generating reports?
10. How many agency personnel are required to generate the agency’s crime reports?
11. How long does the agency require to generate required crime reports?
o 0-1 months
o 2-3 months
o 3+ months
12. Does the agency perform crime data analytics?
o RMS is used to perform data analytics and generate reports
o Crime analytics is performed by extracting crime information from the RMS and reports
are created externally
o Other
13. What type of crime information reports are provided for the public?
o Criminal activity maps/reports
o Error reports
o Year-to-date stats
o Year over year stats
o Other

3

Attachment 3 – Universe of potential NIBRS study participant questions

NIBRS Modernization Study
Potential Participant Interview Questions

Part 2
Agency Record Management Systems and Local Recordkeeping

Agency Operations
1. Command staff
o How satisfied is the command staff member with the record management system
(RMS)?
o Is the command staff member aware of the FBI’s move to only NIBRS Reporting?
 Are there any concerns with the FBI’s move to only NIBRS reporting? If yes,
describe.
2. Patrol officers
o What is the ease or difficulty of entering data into the system?
o Does the system provide data validation or error detection?
3. Crime analysts
o Does the analyst have the ability to pull data from the RMS?
o Does the system contain the data needed for analysis?
o Does the system generate SRS or NIBRS reports?
o Has the analyst had crime reporting system training?
o If the system generates SRS or NIBRS data, does the analyst do any analysis with this
output?
 If yes, what changes/enhancements could be provided to improve upon the
analytic capabilities?

Administration/Reporting
4. How does the system(s) receive and collect crime information?
o Directly from patrol kiosks/laptops in the patrol vehicle
o Directly from police officers and investigators in the station
o Indirect input from paper patrol/investigative forms
o Other
5. How does the system(s) transmit and deliver crime information?
o System generated reports
o System generated data files for export:
 Reporting – internal operational resource allocation
 Summary reporting – state
 Summary reporting – regional
 Summary reporting – federal

4

Attachment 3 – Universe of potential NIBRS study participant questions

NIBRS Modernization Study
Potential Participant Interview Questions
o

 Internal data analytics
Direct interface with:
 Judicial or trial system(s)
 Forensic system(s)
 Web portal (public access - crime hot spots)
 Other

6. Who can access the agency’s RMS?
o Patrol or Investigative staff
o Agency operations or command staff
o Agency administrative staff
o System administrators
o Other
7. Does the agency’s RMS include monitoring or audit logging (who accessed, what information
and when it was accessed)?
o Monitors by user id, time, and activity (read, edit, or delete)
o Monitors by user id and time
o Monitors by time
o Does not monitor
o Other
8. Does the agency audit RMS access and activities?
9. How does the agency handle updates to reported incident information (e.g., change in
offender)?
10. Can the agency’s RMS perform the following functions?
o Record information for all offenses in the incident
o Provide a detailed offense code assigned to each offense in the incident
o Provide demographic information:
 For each offender
 For each victim
o Map the relationship between each victim and offender stored for all offenses in an
incident
o Updating and correcting previously recorded and/or submitted information
o Track multiple clearances
o Track whether an incident was exceptionally cleared
o Record and store exceptional clearance date
11. Does the application or system enforce any of the NIBRS data edit and validation checks at the
time of data entry?
12. Does the current RMS create an FBI standard SRS or NIBRS report/export file?
o Yes:

5

Attachment 3 – Universe of potential NIBRS study participant questions

NIBRS Modernization Study
Potential Participant Interview Questions


o

Format?
How does the RMS create the report file?

No:


o

Does the agency create a crime report for submission to a regional or state
agency which does not follow the FBI standard?
 State reporting mechanism or web site
 Other
Alternative reporting methods for submitting SRS or NIBRS data?

13. How does the agency use its collected crime data?
o Sting operations
o Task force operations
o Indictment following investigation
14. Following data collection, does the agency review, analyze, and report information within the
organization and/or to external stakeholders, such as council, legislative bodies, media, and
academic organizations?
15. Does the agency compare its crime data against information provided by other agencies?
16. Does the agency’s RMS connect to other systems (share information)?
o Direct connections (cable)
 Local Area Network
 Wide Area Network (regional, state, etc.)
o Electronic file sharing over the Internet
o Other
17. Does the RMS store data on a local agency-owned system or is the data stored remotely (e.g.,
cloud or vendor-owned system)?
18. Who is responsible for the daily operation, management, and availability of the agency’s RMS?
19. Who in the agency is responsible for monitoring or management of the operations,
maintenance, and upgrading the RMS?
o Agency command staff
o Agency administrative staff
o County or State information technology agency
o Vendor
o Other
20. What is the agency’s RMS system availability requirements?
o 24/7 to support police operations
o Other

6

Attachment 3 – Universe of potential NIBRS study participant questions

NIBRS Modernization Study
Potential Participant Interview Questions
21. What is the agency’s communications or network connectivity to RMS?
o Wireless/Radio link from patrol vehicle to station’s information technology network
o Direct connection only from station computers
o Internet portals (assuming a web-based or client-server system)
22. How are the agency’s patrol and investigative resources trained in the use of their RMS?
o Incident reporting is included in the police academy and investigator curriculums
o Vendor provided
o Other
23. Will the existing RMS require information system improvements to meet NIBRS’s crime incident
reporting requirements?
o Application improvements (software and database)
o Infrastructure improvements (hardware)
o Network
o Other

7

Attachment 3 – Universe of potential NIBRS study participant questions

NIBRS Modernization Study
Potential Participant Interview Questions

Part 3
NIBRS Opportunities for Improvement
1. What are suggestions for ways to encourage participation in or improve the use of NIBRS (data
categorization, etc.)?
o Additional data – please specify
o Less data – which ones are less useful/meaningful
o Less restrictive edits/mandatories
o Fast error reporting
o Validation tools
o Error reporting help
o Other
2. How could the NIBRS assist [or improve] the agency crime information analytics?
3. What services could the FBI provide to the agency to help in its ability to collect accurate and
reliable crime data?
4. What would the agency recommend be changed in the NIBRS infrastructure or operations?
o Simplify crime information reporting uploading
o Provide direct input portal
o Audits by state or FBI
o Additional or improved training by state or FBI
o Improved file formats
o Automated electronic transmission capability
o Other

8