Overview of NCS-X

The National Crime Statistics Exchange
OVERVIEW
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is implementing the National Crime
Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) program to generate national incident-based
data on crimes reported to law enforcement agencies. NCS-X will leverage
the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Incident-Based Reporting
System (NIBRS) by recruiting a scientifically selected sample of law
enforcement agencies to supplement the existing NIBRS data by providing
incident data to their state (and onto the federal) NIBRS data collection
program. When completed, this program will increase our nation’s ability
to monitor, respond to, and prevent crime by allowing NIBRS to produce
timely, detailed, and accurate national measures of crime incidents.
NCS-X is a collaborative undertaking, supported by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and other Department of Justice agencies. BJS also needs the
support of the law enforcement community to ensure its success. NCS-X
will be designed to implement efficient
and minimally burdensome processes to
“This program will increase our nation’s ability to
collect and extract incident-based data
from existing records management
monitor, respond to, and prevent crime….”
systems. Specific benefits may be
provided to agencies to encourage
participation in NCS-X. These may include increased operational and
analytic capabilities or resources, training, technical support, or other
customized incentives.
A team of organizations — including RTI International, the International
Association of Chiefs of Police, the Police Executive Research Forum,
the Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute, and SEARCH, the
National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics — is responsible
for developing the implementation plans for NCS-X. This includes
coordinating efforts with local law enforcement, state reporting programs,
and the software industry. An Executive Steering Committee will review
design and implementation options to ensure the maximum benefit to
participants and key stakeholders.

HOW DOES NCS-X AFFECT MY AGENCY?
NCS-X Phase I activities are focused on assessing the program’s
viability and implementation costs. Tasks include (1) recruiting
a sample of 400 law enforcement agencies for participation, (2)
reaching out to stakeholders and existing state Uniform Crime
Reports and NIBRS reporting programs to gain their insight
and support, (3) identifying barriers and

developing incentives and resources that will encourage candidate agencies to participate in NCS-X,
and (4) developing cost and feasibility guidelines for
implementation.
The NCS-X project team will contact candidate
law enforcement agencies in 2013 to introduce this
initiative, provide background on the program, and
gather information about each agency’s current
operations and incident-based reporting capabilities.
BJS will explore a variety of options to assist agencies
in participating in the program, including potentially
expanding reporting capabilities, technical solutions,
analytic tools, and other incentives that will enhance
the operational capabilities of the NCS-X agencies.

More Information
For more information regarding NCS-X, or if you
have any questions, please contact the following:
Howard N. Snyder, PhD
Deputy Director
Bureau of Justice Statistics
U.S. Department of Justice
Howard.Snyder@usdoj.gov
(202) 307-0765

Kevin J. Strom, PhD
NCS-X Project Director
RTI International
kstrom@rti.org
(919) 485-5729