Crime statistics reported to the FBI will be getting more accurate.

The Vicksburg Police Department and representatives from surrounding municipalities and communities in Arkansas and Louisiana spent Tuesday and Wednesday learning about the FBI’s new crime reporting system.

The National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, replaced the current Uniformed Crime Reporting system and collects deeper data to be used when compiling crime statistics.

“The training is being sponsored by the FBI,” city of Vicksburg IT director Pam Newton said. “We have been planning this class for about three months. It is a mandate that we start reporting on a NIBRS platform versus our current UCR format. This will put us in line to continue receiving federal funding.”

Departments are required to make the change by Dec. 2020 or risk losing federal funding. Newton said Vicksburg chose to get ahead of the curve and they hope to be fully switched to NIBRS by the end of the year. This week’s training was designed to ease the process of switching.

“All of it is dealing with crime and how it is reported,” Newton said. “This information is used for statistical purposes like when people want to know what is going on in each community and best cities and worst cities to live in. This will get Vicksburg and everybody who attends this class and goes ahead and transforms to a NIBRS the opportunity to be on the same level playing field.”

According to an FBI release, only about a third of departments nationwide currently use NIBRS, but “the vision for the NIBRS is for it to become the law enforcement community’s standard for quantifying crime, further supporting the mission of the FBI.”

The release also states that because the reports are more detailed, changing to the NIBRS system could cause cities to look like they have higher levels of crime initially.

“It is just changing the way we are reporting crime for statistics. We have to report these crimes to the FBI. It is very helpful. Our IT department put this together,” VPD Sgt. Johnnie Edwards said. “The goal here is for everybody to be on the same page reporting the same thing. Reporting to NIBRS as well as UCR is voluntary. That means all departments are not reporting their data to the FBI. They use the programs to award different grants.”

Newton said the plan is to start switching to the system in the spring and have it implemented by year’s end and that there will be no cost to the department.

“It is going to be a lot of work on our police department,” she said. “They are going to have to change the way they write their reports, but it is not an option. We have to change it to continue to receive federal funding.”