On the Utility of National Crime Statistics for Local Law Enforcement

• In Event: Presidential Panel: The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice III: Taking Stock of Crime Statistics Since "The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society"

Abstract

The Commission believed that the government should be able to plot the levels of different types of crime in a city or state as precisely as the Bureau of Labor Statistics plot unemployment rates at subnational levels. It believed that this level of information would help in planning the justice system response. This presentation will feature insights from a local police department on the role of statistical information in planning and developing strategic and tactical responses to the missions of both preventing and responding to crime. It will address both how local data are used and the utility and relevance of national data for local agency use. The presentation will assess the relevance of both local and national incident data in terms of timeliness, comprehensiveness of the information, and quality of the data. In addition, as the Commission envisioned that both the FBI and BJS would have responsibilities for engaging local agencies for obtaining crime data, the presentation will address the burden imposed on local agencies of providing crime data relative to the usefulness of this data to these agencies of the statistical products they receive.

Author

• Michael C. Miller, Coral Gables Police Department