Uniform Crime Reporting
The Federal Bureau of Investigations introduced Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) as a linkage between law enforcement agencies and the data collection and dissemination centers in their vicinity. This is a receptive idea, and it has introduced a new way of collecting authentic information for proper analysis by the intelligence community. Under the Uniform Crime Reporting rationale, there are two divisions. Part one crimes are index crimes together with the significant felonies. Again there is a further subdivision in terms of the nature of the crimes that are committed. The violent crime index categorizes murder & non-negligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, forcible rape, and robbery. Under the property crime index, the actions classified as crimes include burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft, and arson.
Part 2 crimes include the non-index offenses which are not utilized, especially when the crime rate is being calculated. These offenses include; curfew violations, vandalism, fraud, embezzlement, forgery, counterfeiting, and simple assault misdemeanors. When calculating the crime rate, the total number of index crimes is expressed per 100,000 of the population. Mathematically, this implies that the index crimes multiplied by 100,000 and, if divided by the whole community, should generate a figure known as the crime rate. Away from Mathematics, there is the social impact that this kind of system inflicts on a population. In terms of enhancing security, I think this kind of engagement between civilians, intelligence institutions, and security machinery leads to safe grounds. It is okay for the police to involve civilians, especially when they want to obtain very critical information.
This phenomenon can easily be referred to as community policing, very organized, and with the potential of generating more reliable data. I know some people turn themselves in to the police and alter narratives, but this is just a small chunk of individuals compared to the hundreds of thousands who take the initiative to be a brother’s and a sister’s keeper. Most countries have borrowed this module of operation to transform their Police artistry from too much action-oriented to too much service orientation. Allowing civilians to report freely was a move that has improved the image of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. This is how the FBI did it. The FBI established a National Incident-based Report Reporting System, which allowed all individuals who had meaningful information about the crime to report their claims. If the FBI determines that there is substantial evidence to support the claims reported, they launch investigations while thoroughly analyzing scenarios on the crimes recorded and the actual crimes committed.
Data Gathering Strategy for the Police Departments Studies
To put the Uniform Crime Reporting theory into practice, we embarked on a mission of going through crime records of four distinct Towns by careful considerations. To gather data, we employed the use of in-depth interviews from both civilians and intelligence officers. We sample fifty civilians and twenty intelligence officers from each Town, and we went ahead to record the data we obtained procedurally. Both male and female respondents were interviewed. However, we did not dwell much on the issues related to the categorization of respondents on lines such as gender or race since the aim of this research was merely to find out the primary triggers of violence in the specific towns and the nature of the offenses which are committed. Here are the findings that we ultimately presented.
At Happy Town Police Department, there is some laxity expressed by the security personnel present. This is because crime rates in this region have been increasing steadily instead of reducing. Instantly, I noticed the impact that the high crime rates have had on the population. By 2010, there were 168,000 individuals as a representation of the whole population of the Town, but currently, the community has reached 125,336. Are people migrating away from Happy Town? The answer is yes. The reason to justify the migration is the rising cases of insecurity in the region. Larceny theft was at its highest in 2015 with more than two hundred cases reported. Incidents of robbery are also on the rise in Happy Town, but there is more reason for individuals to worry. The number of aggravated assault cases are presently very high, 86 is the number. Back in 2010, the same Town recorded only seventy-two cases. It gets worse in Happy Town; in 2014, there was one arson incident recorded. I think the incident-based reporting system at Happy Town has severely failed. Where is the public when all this is happening? And who bears the ultimate responsibility?
Crime Trends
Things are a little different at Frown Town Police Department. There is a decrease of 17% in the crime rate, and this has been attributed to the efficiency of the intelligence officers. At Frown Town, criminal investigations are the order of the day, and already several arrests have been made. Previously, the population is growing. In 2010, there were 108,350 individuals in the Town, but in 2015 there are 111,002 people. In Frown Town, murder rates are severely low, only in 2012, and in 2013 were two cases recorded for each year all the other years have recorded no single instances of murder. Rape cases are significantly low, only two lawsuits filed in both 2014 and the year that followed. Aggravated assault cases are also slowly reducing, and since 2014, there has been a steady decline. Though 65 incidents were recorded in 2014, the figure reduced to 53 the following year. The intelligence community in Frown Town is very responsive to crime. Police Officers from this region seem to be fully aware of the roles that they play.
Respondents from Smooth Town had quite an easy time expressing the dynamic nature that they had instilled in their crime reporting interventions. It was astonishing that significant crimes are actually at their lowest point and that there has been a substantial decline in the number of property-related crimes. At the same time, there is an extremely positive growth in the population. By 2010, the Town had 120,010 people, but currently, there are more than 156,000 people. This means that the residents of Smooth Town are fully cooperative with the community policing mechanisms that have been put in place.
Cool Town is similarly progressive. At first glance, I noticed that there had been a steady increase in the total population of the Town. The community stood at 128,010 in 2010, but it has steadily grown to reach 175,336. In 2015 there was no single case of murder or non-negligent manslaughter recorded. Only two cases of forcible rape were recorded in 2015. Robbery rates have also gone down, only twenty-six case was reported in 2015 compared to thirty-four instances filed in 2014. Aggravated assault cases have even gone down significantly, 53 cases were reported in 2015 compared to 65 cases in 2014. At the same time there has been reduction in the occurrence of motor vehicle theft. Eighteen cases were reported in 2015 compared to 22 instances initially recorded in 2014. I sought to find out the real reason why the crime reporting procedures at Cool Town remained effective despite challenges in other neighboring towns. Using information from other documented sources, there is evidence that maybe the social-economic status of the individuals present in the region has contributed to the conformity towards the security of Cool Town. The people of Cool Town get a higher median household income compared to the median for the state. This implies that the Town is majorly comprised of the middle class and the well-to-do members of society. Police respondents interviewed expresses their confidence in the implementation of well-informed uniform crime reporting systems in the future to ensure all intelligence quarters are aligned to serve one specific goal.