The Baltimore Police Department will change the way that it collects and reports crime data, Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael S. Harrison announced Wednesday.
The department will transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), in accordance with an FBI mandate that all law enforcement agencies move to NIBRS.
The new system collects greater detail about crimes and allows for more specificity in reporting offenses.
Transitioning away from the previous system – the Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s Summary Reporting System – will help the department identify patterns in crimes and fight crimes more effectively, the Mayor’s Office said.
Under the UCR system, only the most serious offense in an incident was reported. With NIBRS, multiple offenses can be documented per incident.
With the transition, reported crime numbers will seem higher than they were in the past for certain offense categories, the Mayor’s Office said, but that does not mean crimes have increased.
