CentralSquare, a leader in public sector technology, has announced that multiple customer agencies have received National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) certification from the Criminal Justice Information Services Division agencies in Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin.

The certification was issued following a review by each state's Criminal Justice Information Services Division which determined that these agencies' implementation of CentralSquare Records Enterprise met all required criteria in the areas of system compatibility, responsiveness, statistical reasonableness and satisfactory error rate. Each agency is the first in its state to achieve certification of its web-based CentralSquare Records Enterprise platform and joins a network of more than 1,000 NIBRS-certified agencies using the CentralSquare platform in dozens of states—with more to come in the countdown to meet the FBI deadline.

The FBI is retiring the summary-based reporting system and will transition to a NIBRS-only data collection in 2021. As a result, law enforcement agencies are being encouraged to start implementing NIBRS now. To become NIBRS certified, public safety agencies must submit incident-based data for a designated, consecutive period of time and meet several criteria, including following technical specifications, demonstrating ability to liaise effectively with the state agency and the FBI, submitting data that is statistically reasonable and sustaining an error rate of less than a designated percent for three separate, consecutive data submissions, among other requirements. CentralSquare Records Enterprise returned a 0% percent error rate on its data submission, according to the company.

Summary crime data reports have historically lacked information about the victim and offender, the relationship between them, the location where the crime took place and a host of other contextual variables, resulting in inconsistencies when reviewing individual incidents. For example, in a summary report, agencies have been required to date to list only an incident's top offense, meaning if an armed robbery and homicide occurred, only the homicide would be listed. NIBRS captures details of every reported crime incident, including circumstances and contextual items which can provide more useful statistics to analyze and develop strategies for reducing crimes and victimization.

"Offering the most comprehensive NIBRS-proven records management system on the market, CentralSquare leverages more than 20 years of NIBRS expertise to help ensure our partner agencies meet the 2021 deadline," said Steve Seoane, CentralSquare's president of public safety. "It's our privilege to work with our public safety partners in Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin, among the rest of the network of NIBRS-certified agencies using the CentralSquare platform. As a result of NIBRS, law enforcement will be able to dig deeper into the root causes of crime and victimization, which will lead to helping build safer communities across America."

CentralSquare Records Enterprise is a cloud-based records management solution that allows personnel to enter information once and share it across the entire suite of software, including 911, Computer Aided Dispatch, Mobile and Jail. CentralSquare continues to work with its agency partners to roll out additional NIBRS certifications across the United States.

Throughout the year ahead, CentralSquare will continue to provide insights and best practices for public safety agencies who are currently undertaking the transition to NIBRS.