NCS-X State interview questionnaire

National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X)
State UCR/NIBRS Coordinator Interview Questionnaire
RESPONDENT INFORMATON (to be completed ahead of interview)

Name:
Title:
State:
Phone:
Other Contact:

INTRODUCTION
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), in collaboration with the FBI is implementing a new initiative called
the National Crime Statistics Exchange (or NCS-X) to increase reporting to the National Incident Based
Reporting System in order to create a nationally representative database of incident-based crime
records from U.S. law enforcement agencies. NCS-X will generate national estimates on crime incidents
and return meaningful information on reported crimes (including details about the incidents, victims,
and offenders) to the law enforcement community and other constituents.
More specifically, BJS will work with agencies who are currently not reporting NIBRS data to report their
incident data to their state’s incident based reporting system and then onto the FBI. NCS-X will be
providing funding and technical assistance to the sampled 400 law enforcement agencies and to state
UCR/NIBRS programs to enable them to report these additional data to the FBI. 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.
Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. Again, the purpose of this interview is to learn about
the UCR and incident-based data that your state collects and reports to the FBI, as well as understand
how your agency processes and manages these data. Your participation in this interview is completely
voluntary and you may choose to not answer any question you do not want to. We may record this
interview to assist us in writing up our notes, are you okay if we record the interview? Do you have any
questions for me before we begin?

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STATE PROGRAM GENERAL QUESTIONS
I would like to first ask some general questions about your role and your agency’s role in your state data
collection program.
1. What is your title [or confirm title if known]? Please briefly describe your primary duties?
2. How long have you been in this position? _____ years
3. Background on the State:
a. Does your state currently collect incident-based crime data from state and local law
enforcement agencies?
[IF DEFINITION IS NEEDED: By “incident-based data,” I mean for each crime incident that
comes to the attention of law enforcement, a variety of data are collected about the
incident. These data include the nature and types of specific offenses in the incident,
characteristics of the victim(s) and offender(s), types and value of property stolen and
recovered, and characteristics of persons arrested in connection with a crime incident. These
data are reported in detail by the local agency to your state.]
b. Are these data compatible with the FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
reporting requirements?
Probes
i. If not, why?
ii. Are these data reported to the FBI NIBRS Program?
c. Does your state have additional incident-based data elements, codes or other reporting
provisions that are specific to your state, beyond the standard NIBRS data elements and
reporting provisions of the NIBRS program? [If so, briefly identify and describe.]
d. Does your state have requirements for reporting either summary or incident-based crime
data to the state that local agencies must adhere to? If yes, have you received feedback
from local agencies regarding any challenges of meeting these requirements?
Probes
i. Statutory requirements?
ii. Required to submit summary vs. incident-based data?
iii. Must conform to specific State standards (e.g., data format, data quality)
4. Approximately how many law enforcement agencies are there in your state?
Probes:
a. How many law enforcement agencies report summary UCR data only?
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b. How many law enforcement agencies report incident-based data?

COLLECTING AND REPORTING INCIDENT-BASED DATA
This next set of questions focuses on how incident-based data is generally collected and processed in
your state.
5. How are incident-based data reported to your agency from other agencies?
Probes:
a. What systems or options are available for agencies to report incident-based data to your
agency (i.e., web-based options, FTP, e-mail)? Approximately what proportion of submitting
agencies submit incident-based data by each of these options?
b. Do you have plans for other reporting channels/capabilities in the near (12-24 months)
future?
c. How frequently are incident-based data reported to your agency? Does the frequency of
reporting vary by agency?
d. IF KNOWN WHAT AGENCIES IN THEIR STATE ARE IN THE SAMPLE ASK: Do you know if and
how __________________ agencies collect incident-based data?
6. What is your agency’s role in collecting and processing UCR, state incident-based, or NIBRS data for
your state?
Probes:
a. Maintain reporting standards
b. Update applicable reporting code tables
c. Provide training and/or technical assistance to contributing agencies [probe for in-person,
online, general assistance, training to improve data quality]
d. Receive and process submissions
e. Provide auditing protocols for local agencies to implement
f. Conduct onsite audits of agencies to ensure reporting standards
g. Review and edit submissions for accuracy, data quality, and compliance with reporting rules
[probe for what data elements or reporting rules are most problematic for agencies]
h. Process submitted data and prepare:
i. Multi-agency (i.e., state level) data, files for internal and external use,
ii. summary reports,
iii. analytic reports,
iv. other products (specify______________________) made available to
v. Contributing agencies,
vi. Other local/state agencies,
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vii. The general public
viii. Other (specify__________________________)
i. Convert state incident-based data to NIBRS specifications for reporting to FBI
j. Convert incident-based data to summary data for analysis
k. Submit UCR data to FBI
l. Submit NIBRS data to FBI
m. Other (specify___)
6. What, in your opinion, are the greatest barriers that local agencies face in their ability or willingness
to report incident-based data to your agency?
Probes:
a. Expected/projected costs of modifying their information/records management systems to
collect and report the data in compliant formats
b. Expected/projected costs of training staff within their agency
c. Little perceived value to local operations
d. Concerns that the volume and/or rate of crime will appear to increase
e. Insufficient data organization at local level
f. Needing to manipulate data into proper format
g. Other (specify)
7. How, in your opinion, might we best address these barriers to support and enable more agencies in
your state to participate in incident-based reporting?
8. A. What, in your opinion, are the greatest barriers your agency faces in supporting and expanding
incident-based reporting/NIBRS reporting in your state?
Probes:
Staff and resources to support:
i) Training
ii) Technical assistance
iii) Research and analysis of IBR data
iv) Provide analysis tools to contributing agencies
v) Other (specify______________________)
8. B. Is there any help or technical assistance that your agency could use that would facilitate the
expansion of incident-based reporting/NIBRS reporting in your state?
Probes:
i) Training
ii) Expert assistance (If so, for what?)
iii) Analysis tools, software, hardware
iv) Funding (If so, for what?)
v) Other (specify______________________)
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9. How, in your opinion, might we best address these barriers to support and enable IBR reporting
within your state?
10. Does your state have a plan or an overall goal related to incident-based reporting? (e.g., 80%
participation by 2015) If so, what is it? If you don’t have a goal related to incident-based reporting,
what are the main reasons for not having one? What would be a realistic goal for incident-based
reporting in your state?
11. To what extent do agencies in your state participate in other regional or Federal information sharing
or reporting systems (e.g., N-DEx, State/Regional Fusion Center, Real-Time Crime Center, etc.)?

STATE-LEVEL DATA FILES
The following questions ask about how your agency produces state-level data files for use in your state
and for submitting to the FBI
12. What steps and processes are required to produce the state-level UCR/State incident-based/NIBRS
data file?
Probes:
a. What are the steps and processes required for submitting NIBRS data to the FBI?
13. Does your office use any particular software to process these data?
Probes:
a. Which company provided the software to you?
b. Can you provide the software product name and its version?
c. Did this software have to be modified in any way to meet your state’s incident-based
reporting requirements?
14. What steps do you take to fulfill the requirements for NIBRS data file standardization?
Probes:
a. For example, is a NIEM (National Information Exchange Model) conformant state-level data
file prepared?
b. If so, how is this done?
c. What else do you have to do? [compare to FBI response]
15. How is your NIBRS data transmitted to the FBI, and how often?

LEVEL OF EFFORT
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The next questions focus on the level of effort that is required by your agency for collecting and
processing traditional UCR, State incident-based, and NIBRS data.
16. How many people within your agency are currently involved in collecting, processing, auditing, and
preparing the data for submission to the FBI? About how many person hours is collectively required
to complete these tasks?
Probes:
a. Separately, how much time is spent training or responding to technical assistance inquiries
from local agencies?
17. What data collection and processing step(s) tend to be the most resource-intensive for your
organization? Why are these most resource-intensive? What do you think could be done in each
step to reduce this resource requirement?
Probes:
a. Collection
b. Processing
c. Validity check/auditing
d. Producing state level file
e. Producing the file that is reported to the FBI
f. Other steps? [NAME: ________________]
18. If state incident-based reporting was expanded to include the two largest law enforcement agencies
in your state, what impact would that have on your need for resources, including staffing and
infrastructure?
a. Do you believe that this level of increase could be handled with current resources or would
additional resources be required?

ANALYSIS AND REPORTING
The next few questions focus on how data collected from local agencies is used both at a state and local
agency level. This will help determine what types of assistance could be provided to improve the
analytical and operational value of incident-based data.
19. Does your agency, or another other agency such as the Statistical Analysis Center, provide analysis
of incident –based data or analytical tools to process incident-based data to local agencies? If so,
what analyses or analytic tools are provided? If not, what types of analysis or analytical tools or
resources do you think would be beneficial to local agencies?

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20. What reports or other analytic products (e.g., websites, mapping, etc.) does your agency produce
using UCR, state incident-based or state NIBRS data—identify reports and products by program—
UCR, IBR, NIBRS? How frequently are these products created or published?
21. Which State agencies or organizations regularly use your data or report summaries (e.g., legislature,
governor, etc.)? [Also—differentiate between other agencies who use the data and those who use
the reports. If the data are used, how are they accessed and how frequently? Did this require
substantial investment by the agency?]

WRAP-UP
22. What changes, if any, could be made to the FBI’s NIBRS format to make it easier you to acquire
NIBRS data from more of the agencies in your state?
23. Thinking back to the primary NCS-X goals, which is to recruit a sample of agencies from across the
US to report NIBRS data to the FBI through the state UCR program, is there anything else I should
know about the crime incident data that the State collects, processes or reports that we have not
already discussed or the efforts you have made in the past to expand incident-based reporting in
your State?
Probes:
a. Do you have any documentation you could supply that would provide any additional
information to us or help clarify anything we have talked about today?
i. For the overall State program?
ii. Regarding the nature of the agencies within the state?

CLOSING
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. Your input is extremely important in these early
stages of NCS-X and it has been very helpful to learn about your state’s activities. If you have any
questions about the interview today or the National Crime Statistics Exchange overall, you may contact
Kevin Strom, NCS-X project director at RTI International. He can be reached via phone at 919-485-5729
or email: kstrom@rti.org.
IF NEEDED: During the interview we talked about you emailing me information regarding _________.
You can send this information to me via e-mail. My email address is _____________. If you need to call
me, I can be reached at _____________.

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