NCJ Number
75821
Journal
Campus Law Enforcement Journal Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: (January/February 1981) Pages: 22-25
Date Published
1981
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Difficulties in assessing crime statistics in maintaining a recordkeeping system which accurately reflects police activity are examined.
Abstract
One of the most perplexing problems facing the law enforcement administrator is the development of an accurate statistical index of the amount and nature of crime within an agency's jurisdiction. For example, both victimization surveys and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report are often used as the standards for the collection of data and its proper analytic distribution. The FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) does not reflect the total police movement toward crime and is not valid when applied to specific categories of police responsibilities which are the major users of police time and manpower. Such categories include the provision of social services, the suppression of nuisances, the control of traffic, and the provision of a wide range of miscellaneous emergency types of services. None of these activities are reported to the UCR, yet the police administrator sees them as responsibilities which drain his manpower and equipment resources away from the police mission of detection, apprehension, or prevention of crime. Administrative recordkeeping needs procedures which gather data for the purposes of planning and control, organization design, budgeting, and decisionmaking and that accurately reflect all police activity. Eighteen references are included.