Uniform Crime Reporting Unit

The RI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a statewide, cooperative statistical effort of local and state enforcement agencies reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. Since 1984, the Rhode Island State Police has administered the UCR Program and continued to assess and monitor the nature and type of crime in Rhode Island. The UCR System is the State's crime system, which is mandated by Rhode Island General Law (12-24-1) to assemble uniform offense and arrest data in a form prescribed by the Superintendent. The RI crime reporting program is mirrored after the FBI National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The program’s primary objective is to generate reliable information for use in law enforcement administration, operation, and management; however, its data have over the years become one of the leading social indicators. Criminologists, sociologists, legislators, municipal planners, the media, and other students of criminal justice use the data for varied research and planning purposes. The FBI NIBRS data is used to address society’s questions about, when, where, how and why crime occur and help provide forward-thinking solutions.