National Incident Based Reporting

A good link for national information is: FBI Publications

BENEFITS OF NIBRS REPORTING TO THE WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION OF SHERIFFS AND POLICE CHIEFS

An indispensable tool in the war against crime is the ability to identify with precision when and where crime takes place, what form it takes, and the characteristics of its victims and perpetrators. Armed with such information, law enforcement can better make its case to acquire the resources it needs to fight crime; and after obtaining those resources, use them in the most efficient and effective manner. NIBRS provides law enforcement with that tool because it is capable of producing more detailed, accurate, and meaningful data than in the summary UCR program.
 
Many individual law enforcement agencies have very sophisticated records systems capable of producing the full range of statistics on their own activities. NIBRS allow common denominator links among agencies. It will provide law enforcement with extensive, specific crime information concerning similar jurisdictions, allowing the identification of common crime problems, trends, suspect descriptors, and suspect
actions. Agencies can work together to develop possible solutions or proactive strategies for addressing the issues.
 
Legislators, municipal planners and administrators, advocate groups, public, and many other Criminal Justices groups will be better able to assess the State’s and Nation’s crime problem using the extensive data supplied by the law enforcement community. Law enforcement is a public service and as such requires a full accounting from the police commissioner, police chief, sheriff, or director as to the administration of the agency and the status of public safety within the jurisdiction. Full participation in NIBRS will provide statistics to enable a law enforcement agency to fulfill this responsibility. NIBRS has, in fact, the capability of furnishing information on nearly every major criminal
justice issue facing law enforcement today, including,

The data will be available from all levels of law enforcement - Federal, state, and local - aggregated at the level and in the manner which best meets the informational need of the data user.