Someone climbs over a gate and breaks into a mansion in the Hollywood Hills. While they rob the house, the owner confronts them, and the suspect pulls out a gun and shoots the homeowner, killing them.
Based on the current data collection system that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) uses to compile crime data, because it’s the most severe crime and there was only one victim, only the murder would be logged. Not the trespassing or robbery that took place before the fatal shooting.
That’s about to change, though.
Due to a new federal mandate, thousands of police departments around the country are in the process of switching from a nearly century-old “paper and pencil” method of collecting crime data to a fully digital system that is much more detailed. The transition has been slow, however. Despite having years to get things in order, thousands of police departments, including the LAPD, are behind in transitioning their systems.
A new data analysis by the Marshall Project, a non-profit criminal justice-centered newsroom, found that nearly 40 percent of law enforcement agencies across the country did not contribute any data to the new FBI crime statistics collection program. That translates to roughly 7,000 police departments, including two of the country’s largest agencies: the LAPD and NYPD. The majority of police departments in five of the six most populous states also did not contribute.