Recommendation 2
Publish monthly crime trends reports
Recommendation 2
Publish monthly crime trends reports
Implementation Steps
1.
By the end of 2025, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) should create a monthly crime trends dashboard using data from National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Jurisdictions with available data should be chosen and weighted to create a representative national sample. BJS should publish crime statistics for this sample of jurisdictions on a regular monthly schedule, similar to how the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes employment statistics on the first Friday of every month.
2.
BJS should overhaul its website to focus on providing clear, simple, and complete time series data from NIBRS and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) that can be used to generate crime trends according to user specifications. BJS should also seek to aggregate data from a wide variety of sources like the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED)73 platform. Where BJS is unable to aggregate data, links to other federal agencies that present criminal justice-related data, statistics, and tools should be provided on its website so that users can more easily access public information about the operation of the criminal justice system.
3.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should work with BJS and law enforcement partners to explore ways for the CDC to access partial police investigative notes before the police investigation is completed. Earlier access to police information would result in the release of National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) information in a timelier fashion.
