MODEL BILLS

Online Disclosure of Crime Statistics Act

Summary: State and local law enforcement agencies often do a poor job disclosing crime statistics to the public. The Online Disclosure of Crime Statistics Act would require state/local law enforcement agencies to promptly and continually provide statistics for the crime categories that are reported to the U.S. Department of Justice.

For an example of such a system, see the District of Columbia’s CrimeCards

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE

This Act shall be called the “Online Disclosure of Crime Statistics Act.”

SECTION 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE

(A) FINDINGS—The legislature/commission/council finds that:

(1) The residents of [jurisdiction] want accurate and timely information about reported crimes.

(2) Our [police/sheriff] already collects data on reported crimes in those crime categories which are reported to the U.S. Department of Justice for Uniform Crime Reports and the National Incident-Based Reporting System.

(3) Many jurisdictions already have an online dashboard of crime statistics that are updated daily. That data is broken down by geographic areas and, often, linked to specific addresses so that the data is mappable.

(B) PURPOSE—This law is enacted to educate the public and promote better law enforcement.

SECTION 3. ONLINE DISCLOSURE OF CRIME STATISTICS

After section XXX, the following new section XXX shall be inserted:

(A) DEFINITIONS—In this section:

(1) “Law enforcement agency” means any police or sheriff’s office in the [state/city/county].

(2) “Data on reported crimes” means reported offenses which are the types forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice for Uniform Crime Reports and the National Incident-Based Reporting System.

(B) CRIME REPORTS DATABASE

(1) Each law enforcement agency shall enter into a database the data on reported crimes that occurred the day before, or two days before where necessary.

(2) The database shall include, at a minimum, the type of offense using Uniform Crime Reporting definitions, the date, the location by the closest street address, and [police district/police service area].

(3) The database shall be corrected over time when erroneous reports or other mistakes are discovered.

(C) ONLINE DISCLOSURE

(1) The database of crime reports shall be accessible to the public via an Internet page or pages. A mappable display of crime reports is preferred but not required.

(2) Data on reported crimes shall be accessible by any combination of dates, types of offenses, and [police districts/police service areas], [council districts, precincts, census areas (whatever works best for your jurisdiction).

SECTION 4. EFFECTIVE DATE

This law shall become effective on July 1, 20XX.