Crime Statistics

Transitioning from UCR to NIBRS

We are excited to announce that the way the Fort Lauderdale Police Department collects and reports data on crimes is changing. In accordance with the national shift in crime data collection and reporting methods, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department is transitioning from Uniform Crime Report (UCR) to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has mandated that all law enforcement agencies across the country make the transition to NIBRS to improve the overall quality, accuracy and timeliness of crime data collected.

Unlike data reported through UCR’s traditional Summary System—an aggregate monthly tally of crimes— NIBRS data goes much deeper because of its ability to provide circumstances and context for crimes. It includes all offenses within a single incident and additional aspects about each event, like location, time of day, and whether the incident was cleared. More information about crime data reported under NIBRS can be found within the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) User Manual.

What's Changing? Comparing SRS to NIBRS

The Summary Reporting System (SRS) collected data under a hierarchy rule that reported only the most serious offense in an incident. The FBI’s UCR simply reports on numbers of murder, non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson (also known as Part I Crimes).

With NIBRS, there is no hierarchy rule. This allows for multiple offenses to be documented per incident. The NIBRS system also expands the classification of offenses beyond what was available under SRS. For example, under SRS there are only 8 “Part I” offenses, while there are 52 “Group A” offenses under NIBRS. (“Group A” under NIBRS is comparable to “Part I” under SRS.)

Why is this important?

Reported crime numbers will seem higher than they were in the past for certain offense categories. This does not mean that crime has increased; it just means the way crimes are reported has changed.

Additional Statistics

The Crime Analysis Unit produces reports which depict our crime and service statistics. The reports are available below. The reports detail robbery, burglary, auto theft totals, arrests, traffic enforcement and calls for service by Police District and Zone and by Homeowner group .