Frederick Police Have New System For Tracking Crime

It provides more detail than the old system.Frederick Police Chief Jason Lando being interviewed in the WFMD Studios.Frederick, Md (KM) The Frederick Police Department has adopted a new way to report  crime statistics. Most police departments had been using the Uniform Crime Reporting system. But Chief Jason Lando says the city has made the transition to NIBRS, National Incident-Based Reporting System.During a recent appearance on WFMD’s “Morning News Express,” Lando said it goes into more detail on a criminal incident. He lists a robbery  as an example. “Under UCR, that whole incident will be reported as a robbery. Under the new crime reporting stats, it would be reported as a robbery, an assault, and a theft and whatever other lesser offenses occurred in that incident,” he said.NIBRS also provides more specificity in reporting offenses, collects more detailed information, helps give context to specific crime problems, and provides greater flexibility.Right  now, Chief Lando says, some of the crime statistics can be confusing when comparing them with the old Uniform Crime Reporting system which was used last year. “This is a tough year for us to kind of parse out some of these things. And we really have been relying on our crime analyst to help us get through this year,” he said. “Now next year, we’ll looking at our second year of NIBRS reporting versus our first year of NIBRS reporting so our numbers will be easiest to compare.”A statistic pointed out by host Bob Miller was that there were 3111 crimes reported in Frederick in August of this year, compared to 1042 in August, 2022.  Chief Lando says that doesn’t necessarily mean crime has going up drastically in one year. “The number of incidents really hasn’t changed. It’s just that we’re being more transparent in our reporting. It gives the appearance that crime’s way up. But in reality all we’re doing we’re disclosing more of the crimes that occur within an incident.,”: he said.In the end, the Chief says NIBRS will serve the city well. “It’s better transparency for the public, and that’s something I’m all for. Unfortunately, in that changeover year, it’s actually appears as though we’re less transparent. But in reality, we’re just trying to figure out how to move from one system to the other,” he says.Chief Lando says a lot of police departments around the country are making the transition from UCR to NIBRS.Related to that, Lando said crime has been going up recently. . “It is up in Frederick, in Maryland and across the country,” he said. “The trend that we’re seeing is motor vehicle thefts, thefts from motor vehicles—someone break into the car and steals something, but doesn’t take the car—and burglaries,” he  says.By Kevin McManus