Official Crime Reports NIBRS/UCR

Crime Statistics

Most professional police departments collect and report crime statistics. The White Settlement Police Department voluntarily participates in crime reporting through the state of Texas. Crime statistics are used as a basis for overall public safety decisions, resource deployment, and staffing allocations. Knowledge of hot spot crime areas can assist the department in focusing on problematic areas to improve quality of life, reverse crime trends, and partner with the community to assist the agency in reporting suspicious activities.

Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR)

The objective of the Uniform Crime Reporting program is to produce reliable crime statistics for law enforcement administration, operation, and management. While the UCR program has been around since the 1920s, crime reports are obtained from law enforcement agencies across the United States. In Texas, crimes known to police are reported to the Department of Public Safety. In White Settlement, this task is automated through the department's record management system on a monthly basis.

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

While the UCR program has provided a steady, reliable stream of information about crime, data about individual crime incidents are not available. The summary-based methodology, despite its reliability, is limited in many aspects. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Justice Statistics created a new collection system in 1985. This new system is referred to as the Incident-Based Reporting system. In White Settlement, crime statistics are produced utilizing the Incident-Based Reporting system and forwarded to the Texas Department of Public Safety on a monthly basis.

Texas Crime Reports - Summary

The Texas Department of Public Safety converts Incident-Based Reporting data into a summary for inclusion in the Texas Crime Report. At some point, the state has indicated that summary reporting will discontinue, however, a date has not been set. As such, the White Settlement Police Department utilizes summary reports as an official record of crime statistics for the city based upon historical precedence and record keeping.

Accessing Crime Statistics Summary Reports from Texas DPS

While crime numbers can fluctuate depending on when you run a report, the department publishes the summary report received from the state to bolster transparency in crime reporting. The form utilized is called the Return A - Monthly Return of Offenses Known to the Police under the Uniform Crime Reporting.