![]() ![]() “It makes it much more difficult to say, with certainty, what is happening both on a national level and also on the state level.” “People are already crime data illiterate, for the most part,” said Asher. The crime data gap creates a vacuum of facts across the state and the nation, and gives politicians the space to say whatever they want about crime, said Jeff Asher, a criminologist and co-founder of AH Datalytics. In order to fill in the data gap, the state agency said they had to rely on estimation methods to evaluate crime rates for agencies that didn’t submit their data in 2021. In previous years, nearly every police agency in Florida submitted their crime data to the state. Many law enforcement agencies were stuck in the transition from the old crime data collection system - the Summary Reporting System - to the newer National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). “The methodology used by FDLE is similar to that used by the FBI.”Ī spokesperson for the governor referred crime data-related questions to the state enforcement agency, and did not respond to other questions.įlorida’s data gap was partially a result of the FBI’s recent decision to modernize how it collects crime data in the country. “The methodology used by FDLE statisticians is statistically sound and accurately represents the trend of the crime rate in Florida,” a spokesperson responded in an email. The department expects to use estimations for the next few years as Florida transitions out of the old data system. “And we simply cannot do that with the existing data in Florida.”Ī spokesperson from FDLE said the department had to create estimates because police agencies reported data through two systems. “In order to talk accurately about a problem, we need to be able to define the problem correctly,” said Brendan Lantz, a criminology professor at Florida State University. Florida’s participation rate is the lowest of any state in the country.Įxperts said Florida's low participation means it’s nearly impossible to compare Florida’s crime rate to other states, or to compare Florida’s current crime statistics with data from past years. Petersburg Police Department - are missing from the national context. This means more than 500 police departments in Florida - including most of the largest agencies, like the Miami Police Department, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, and the St. Only 49 agencies from Florida, representing less than 8% of police departments, were included in an FBI federal database last year, according to a Marshall Project analysis. Participation in national data collection is even lower. ![]()
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