Feb 2019 AST Magazine Feb 2019 AST Final Magazine | Page 12

www.AmericanSecurityToday.com
February 2019 - Edition 32
Courtesy of the FBI
The Benefits of NIBRS
When used to its full potential, NIBRS iden-
tifies, with precision, when and where crime
takes place, what form it takes, and the char-
acteristics of its victims and perpetrators.
Armed with such information, law enforcement
can better define the resources it needs to fight
crime, as well as use those resources in the most
efficient and effective manner.
When compared to the Summary Reporting
System (SRS), currently being phased out, NI-
BRS:
• Provides greater specificity in reporting of-
fenses. Not only does NIBRS look at all of the
offenses within an incident, but it also looks at
many more offenses than the traditional SRS
does. NIBRS collects data for 52 offenses, plus 10
additional offenses for which only arrests are re-
ported. SRS counts limited data for 10 offenses
and 20 additional crimes for which only arrests
are reported.
• Collects more detailed information, includ-
ing incident date and time, whether reported of-
fenses were attempted or completed, expanded
victim types, relationships of victims to offenders
and offenses, demographic details, location data,
property descriptions, drug types and quantities,
the offender’s suspected use of drugs or alcohol,
the involvement of gang activity, and whether
a computer was used in the commission of the
crime.
10