The Riverhead Police Department has transitioned to a new records-management system to comply with federal and state changes to how crime data is reported and tracked.
The new system complies with the National Incident-Based Reporting System implemented by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The prior reporting system — the Summary Reporting System of Uniform Crime Reports — dates back to 1930 and “remained virtually unchanged” for nearly 60 years, according to an FBI training video. It had seven offense classifications: felonious homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny theft and auto theft. Even though multiple crimes may have been committed, only one offense per incident was reported, the FBI said in the video.
NIBRS, in contrast, provides for 52 offense classifications, with up to 10 offenses per incident and collects data about victims, offenders, property, and arrests. Leveraging records management technology available today, “NIBRS goes much deeper [than the Summary Reporting System] because of its ability to provide circumstances and context for crimes like location, time of day, and whether the incident was cleared,” according to the FBI’s website.
The FBI maintained both data systems for several years after it first implemented NIBRS, but as of Jan. 1, 2021, it transitioned to NIBRS-only data collection.
The Riverhead Police Department has been working on the transition for years, Police Chief Ed Frost said in an interview. It was a very complex process that required extensive training, new equipment and software, and also required the Suffolk County Police Department to deploy the new system first, because it’s all integrated. The county finalized the system in April, he said.
“We went live on May 7,” Frost said.
The Riverhead Police Department is one of five departments in Suffolk that are currently on the new system, said Sgt. Christopher Tam, who is currently leading the effort.
The new system has changed how police departments report criminal incidents to the State Division of Criminal Justice Services, Frost told Town Board members at the board’s Sept. 19 work session, where he presented the July and August monthly reports, the first monthly reports that reflect NIBRS-only data.
Reports generated by the new system use different classifications for certain criminal incidents, Frost told the board. Some classifications include other offenses, he said. As an example, the chief said, the offense of “unlawful imprisonment,” is now reported as a “kidnapping.”
“There’s multiple title groups and various crimes fit into that title,” he explained.
The department is now electronically reporting to the state and the report to the state is generated right from the department’s internal incident reports, Frost said.
Another aspect of the new reporting system has to do with incidents being added when a case is referred to the detective division or additional charges are brought in connection with the same arrest, he said.
For example, the chief explained, if an incident was classified as a burglary at the end of July and then in August, an arrest was made and three additional charges were filed in connection with that incident, all four things are reported as incidents. In an incident initially classified as a burglary, if there’s a subsequent arrest, that’s a second incident, he said. If two additional charges are filed, say a charge related to stolen property or criminal mischief, there will be two additional incidents reported.
The net result is an increase in the number of incidents reported, the chief said. So the data reported in the new system cannot be directly compared to the data reported in the former system.
“Our numbers are very similar from year to year,” the chief told board members. But with the transition, Frost said, the numbers will “be a little off” when comparing NIBRS data to SRS data.
The new data reporting system has also affected the information made available to the media in daily media reports. Since May, the reports released to the media have not included most of the criminal incidents handled by the department, nor have they provided the same level of detail as the previous system provided about the incidents that are included in the reports. All incidents handled by police are assigned incident numbers as they are opened in the system. Numerous incident numbers are missing from each daily report.
Both Frost and his predecessor, former Chief David Hegermiller, said the department is working diligently to produce more complete media reports.
“Our goal is to be as transparent as possible and provide as much information as we can to keep the media and the public informed,” Frost said in an interview. “We’re still working out the kinks.”
[Editor’s note: Due to these data reporting issues and the incomplete nature of the daily reports released to the media, RiverheadLOCAL temporarily suspended publication of its daily “Riverhead Police Blotter” feature.]
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