The National Incident-Based Reporting System, Essay Example

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is a reporting system for crimes logged by the police. Data collected on each crime includes the name of the offender, their arrest status, the specific offense(s), and the type of property stolen and associated value if applicable. This system has many advantages because this information can be used both locally and nationally. When local police enter crimes into the database, they automatically alert surrounding precincts of the crime. Therefore, law enforcement agencies will have instant access to the criminal records of people throughout the country. This makes it easier to assess the character of an individual and therefore decide upon the severity of the punishment. In addition, this information provides warning to precincts with regards to potential suspects for crimes. The NIBRS database can be used to help reveal patterns of crime that may lead to identification of the culprit.

The textbook states that the “great advantage” of the NIBRS data is that it provides researchers and law enforcement with more in-depth knowledge of the crime problem and that this data can be used to decide ways to counteract these problems. Ultimately, a lot of knowledge can be acquired from the data analysis of the information contained within the database at the local, state, and national levels. Trends with regards to the most popular types of crime in addition to which are on the rise can be discovered, which will allow police forces to refocus these efforts to address these problems.

A major disadvantage of the NIBRS is that not every local police force has begun to use this system. Since it is the responsibility of the local police to enter data, information is not available for some counties. This impairs the ability of the police to gain an understanding of this data at the national level because there are gaps in the information that is available. Furthermore, the implementation of the NIBRS has resulted in the need for individuals in the local law enforcement agencies to receive training regarding use of this system. Likewise, these agencies also need to determine how to designate time to such responsibilities. Data entry and data processing skills are a necessary component of NIBRS use and it is therefore costly hire and train individuals to perform these functions.

Despite these disadvantages, there is a clear balance with the advantages the system brings about. Even though extra time and funding needs to be provided to effectively implement the NIBRS system, once it is in use it provides police officers with useful information that will help them optimize their practices. In the long run, this enhanced efficacy may ultimately save the police force money, indicating that hiring specialized individuals to interpret NIBRS data is worth the initial investment. It is expected that advanced use of this data will allow the police force to detect more crimes in progress and prevent them altogether, so it is expected that use of the NIBRS system will make communities safer as well.