Informant Knowledge Base

If your department has used Informant for UCR reporting and is transitioning or has already transitioned to NIBRS reporting, there are a few key differences to be aware of when entering records that may require slight adjustments to how you enter records in Informant.

Table of contents

• PA-specific NIBRS reporting differences
  • Incident records must include latitude and longitude
  • Each incident must specify the jurisdiction where the incident occurred
• NIBRS reporting differences applicable to all states
  • NIBRS codes vs. UCR codes in selection lists and offense definitions
  • Justifiable homicides must be entered as separate incidents

PA-specific NIBRS reporting differences

Pennsylvania's version of NIBRS has a few additional data collection requirements that are not part of the federal NIBRS specification, which translates to specific workflow changes in Informant that are needed to comply with the PA NIBRS specification.

Incident records must include latitude and longitude

Unlike with UCR, Pennsylvania's NIBRS standard requires all incidents to include latitude and longitude information. In Infomant, this means all incidents that will be reported to NIBRS must have a master index location record linked to them, and the master index location needs to have the Latitude and Longitude fields filled in with valid coordinates reflecting the location of the incident, as accurately as possible.

Informant's Geocoding feature assists with this requirement by providing an option in Location records to automatically fill in latitude and longitude based on the address information in the record.

Each incident must specify the jurisdiction where the incident occurred

For PA NIBRS, each incident must include the 5-digit PSP jurisdiction code specifying the municipality where the incident occurred. In Informant, this means the Jurisdiction field should reflect the jurisdiction where the incident took place, and not the jurisdiction where the agency is located, as is the case with UCR reporting.

If your users are used to specifying your agency's jurisdiction in all Incident records, they will need to begin selecting the jurisdiction where the incident took place once your agency is certified to submit NIBRS data. If your agency provides police coverage for multiple jurisdictions, an administrator may need to add any additional jurisdictions covered by your agency in Administration in the Jurisdiction Number selection list if your agency has not previously added those jurisdictions there. Each jurisdiction's Display Code must be set to the 5-digit jurisdiction number assigned by the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) for that municipality.

NIBRS reporting differences applicable to all states

Certain NIBRS requirements are part of the federal NIBRS specification and therefore apply to all states.

NIBRS codes vs. UCR codes in selection lists and offense definitions

Several selection lists in Informant, as well as offense definitions, have a UCR code assigned to them to map a user's choices in Informant to the appropriate UCR codes needed for UCR reporting.

The NIBRS reporting standard uses its own set of codes that often differ from and generally expand upon the codes used in UCR reporting. As a result, various selection list entries will need to be mapped to corresponding NIBRS codes in Administration as part of your transition to NIBRS, and offense definitions in Informant also need to be assigned a NIBRS code either in Administration or when entering an Incident record. In some cases, you may need to create new selection list values to properly map the available NIBRS codes to the selection list values in your database.

Justifiable homicides must be entered as separate incidents

If a crime occurs that involves one or more justifiable homicide offenses (NIBRS code 09C), federal NIBRS reporting rules require creating one incident containing the offenses that led up to the justifiable homicide(s), with separate incidents entered for each justifiable homicide.

Although the natural inclination is to enter any justifiable homicides within the context of the inciting incident, the FBI wants to count each justifiable homicide as a separate and distinct incident for crime reporting purposes. Consequently, justifiable homicides must be entered in their own incident records, separate from the original incident. The NIBRS reporting system will actively reject incidents that contain other offenses alongside a justifiable homicide.