The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) system for collecting and compiling crime data from across the United States. More detailed than the traditional summary reporting system (SRS), which agencies used to submit counts of offenses, clearances, and arrests made, NIBRS can fulfill the need for useful crime statistics as part of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The FBI will use NIBRS data to address society’s questions about when, where, how, and why crimes occur and help provide forward-thinking solutions. The FBI will make NIBRS data and analytics available to law enforcement personnel, researchers, and the general public.
To accomplish this goal, the FBI is working with the U.S. law enforcement community and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to facilitate the transition of U.S. law enforcement to participation in NIBRS. By 2021, the FBI will retire SRS and collect crime data only through NIBRS. Also, the FBI has developed an online Crime Data Explorer (CDE) to make timely, nationwide NIBRS data available to U.S. law enforcement professionals and average citizens alike, along with analytical tools to make the data immediately useful for answering questions.