Iceberg Consulting LLC

Incident numbers are an important data element to get right. The NIBRS program uses this number to keep track of each incident or arrest. They must be unique for each agency (ORI) submitting crime statistic data. Here are few things to keep in mind as it relates to incident numbers.
1. They must be 12 characters or less long
2. Only capitol letters A - Z, Numbers 0-9, and Hyphens "-" are allowed
3. Both Incident and Group B arrest numbers must be unique. The same agency cannot submit an Incident and Group B arrest with the same Incident number.
4. In the NIBRS submission flat files, case numbers with less then 12 characters must be left aligned and blank filled to 12 characters.
5. There cannot be blanks between the first number and last number in the incident number.

Lastly, If your agency is considering a records management software change or new software implementation make sure to talk about how the case number transition will be handled. A common place to encounter duplicate incident number submission errors is during a records management switch.

Within NIBRS, every incident is divided up into segments or sections. Not every incident will have all these segments or sections. Every Group A incident will have a minimum of an Administrative, Offense, Victim, and Offender Section. The Property section is only required for crimes against property offenses. The Arrest section is only required when an offender is identified and an arrest is made.

Knowing what specific data elements are included in each of these sections is important for officers or personnel responsible for writing criminal offense NIBRS reportable incident reports. Having a working knowledge of these data elements will help anyone investigating an incident know what data is important to collect during the investigations. It will also help anyone reviewing reports to make sure the correct value is selected for the situation being investigated.

The NIBRS program collects crime statistic data by defining 52 different data elements that can be reported per incident report. When you add in the additional A, B, and C data elements there is actually 59 different data elements per incident report.

Not every incident report requires all 59 data elements. There are 12 absolutely mandatory data elements for every Group A incident and 9 mandatory data elements for Group B arrests. All the other data elements might be mandatory if certain data is present in the incident or optional.

This headline is from a recent incident in Atlanta Georgia. Based on story, what NIBRS offense codes should be included in this incident report?

Driver doing burnouts faces multiple charges: GSP A video sent in by an 11Alive viewer shows the entire scene unfold as the trooper hits the pickup truck and makes the arrest.