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Author: Jeff Luther
Posted: Jan 25, 2012 at 12:01 PM
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Crime statistics reporting is an important process that impacts the daily lives of citizen’s. Crime statistics play an important role in the deployment of public safety resources and local economic development. Accurate and timely information regarding crime rates is important in determining what crimes are being committed, where crimes are occurring, how frequently they are committed and how resources can best be deployed. Therefore, the crime statistical reporting process at the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office is continually analyzed to ensure accuracy and accountability.
A primary crime reporting methodology is the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) format. UCR does not report total crime, but, rather, a select list of reported crimes. The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office submits statistical UCR data on a semi-annual and annual basis to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). FDLE’s UCR system provides summary and detailed standardized reports on crime statistics based on data gathered from law enforcement agencies across the State of Florida. You can access the reports at http://www.fdle.state.fl.us.
UCR is a statistical crime reporting tool that is designed to describe increases and decreases in reportable crime on a national level, not at the local jurisdictional level. UCR is designed as a “trend data” to measure crime in America and only reports certain crimes. Data users are discouraged from ranking agencies and using UCR data as a measurement of law enforcement effectiveness. UCR is definition based not statute based and as a result, agency statistics will never match the numbers that are reported for UCR. Statutes are constantly changing, where the UCR definitions and the crimes reported have not changed since 1971. For example, when more than one UCR Offense has occurred, only the most serious is reported.
This is why we also produce our own agency statute based crime statistics which provide actual numbers of crimes in our county. Please see the attachment which compares 2010 agency statistics to 2011 agency statistics. To request additional agency statistics, please click on the crimemapping.com link or you may contact one of our Crime Analysts at 772-978-6157 or 772-978-6116.