Nearly 40% of police agencies in the U.S. did not successfully submit any data in 2021 to the FBI’s revised crime statistics collection program. It’s a large jump from past years. Police departments in New York City and Los Angeles did not submit data. Most law enforcement agencies in five of the six largest states didn’t, either. “The data gap will make it harder to analyze crime trends and fact-check claims politicians make about crime.” What Can FBI Data Say About Crime in 2021? It’s Too Unreliable to Tell, https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/06/14/what-did-fbi-data-say-about-crime-in-2021-it-s-too-unreliable-to-tell?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=opening-statement&utm_term=newsletter-20220614-2872
That means those in power can say whatever they want about crime because there is no independent verification of their statements. See, Crime and Its Consequences, Chap. 2, https://slideplayer.com/slide/12781637/; Times Investigation: LAPD misclassified nearly 1,200 violent crimes as minor offenses, https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-crimestats-lapd-20140810-story.html#page=1 Crime rates reported by police are dependent on what crimes the police even know about. Those are going to disproportionately be crimes against older, richer, whiter citizens who are more likely to call the police. Times Investigation: LAPD misclassified nearly 1,200 violent crimes as minor offenses, id.
In 2022, the FBI Quarterly Uniform Crime Report for the nation is based on data received from 10,578 of 18,769 law enforcement agencies in the country that year. FBI Crime Data Explorer, https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/quarterly
The FBI, is working to improve the way the nation collects, analyzes, and uses crime statistics about law enforcement’s use of force. The collection and reporting of use-of-force data will include any use of force that results in the death or serious bodily injury of a person, as well as when a law enforcement officer discharges a firearm at or in the direction of a person. Uniform Crime Reporting Program, https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr/
With the National Use-of-Force Data Collection, data users can view use-of-force incidents involving law enforcement from a nationwide perspective. The goal of the resulting statistics is not to offer insight into single use-of-force incidents but to provide an aggregate view of the incidents reported and the circumstances, subjects, and officers involved. Id.