What are Part-1 Crimes …
The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Web Site explains that there are eight types of crimes in the Part-1 classification. Those crimes are:
- Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter
- Forcible Rape
- Robbery
- Aggravated Assault
- Burglary
- Larceny-Theft
- Motor Vehicle Theft
- Arson
The FBI explains that the reporting of crime statistics is limited to these "because they are the crimes most likely to be reported and most likely to occur with sufficient frequency to provide an adequate basis for comparison."
How and when do we report crime statistics …
The San Bernardino Police Department's Records Bureau staffs a full time statistics clerk. The statistics clerk prepares a monthly report to the Chief of Police that outlines the Part-1 statistics for the prior month. This report is submitted to the California Department of Justice (CA DOJ). The California Criminal Justice Statistics Center collects data from all California law enforcement agencies and forwards the information to the FBI. The FBI collects this same data from agencies across the nation and reports the data at the national level annually.
Small monthly changes insure annual accuracy ...
The collection of statistical data at the state and federal level takes time and a lot of cooperation between agencies and reporting departments. On-going investigations can cause crimes to be reclassified after they have been reported. Adjustments are made in the current monthly statistical pool to insure that an accurate balanced report occurs at the end of each calendar year.
As an example. If the Police Department reported 100 burglaries last month and detectives learned that one of the burglary reports is actually an unfounded crime the burglary statistical count for this month would be reduced by one burglary. This type of statistical balancing is accepted by state and federal data warehouses as a reasonable way to maintain accurate annual reporting without constantly revising a prior month's data.
If you use our statistical data as a tracking tool, remember that these small changes can occur and you might not be able to balance the same data when you collect it from different sources.