A BYTE OUT OF HISTORY
Taking the Pulse of Crime...76 Years
and Counting
06/07/06
Al Capone was still running his rackets of
murder and crime in Chicago. Bonnie and Clyde
had just met in Texas. Lester Gillis-aka "Baby
Face" Nelson-was beginning his association
with the mid-western underground. And John
Dillinger was in jail in Indiana, soaking
up bank-robbing tricks of the trade from hardened
convicts who would soon help him launch a
new career of crime.
The
year was 1930…and lawlessness-bank robberies,
burglaries, kidnappings, murder, and the like-seemed
to be on the rise in the U.S. But no one knew
for sure, as crime statistics were not collected
from year to year. It was time-law enforcement
and congressional leaders realized-to create
a nationwide barometer of crime to help authorities
understand trends and set priorities.
The
concept of collecting crime stats was not
a new one. It'd been authorized by Congress
in 1870 and discussed by police execs the
following year, but plans never got off the
ground. There were many hurdles to overcome-from
finding funds and someone to run the program…to
setting universal definitions for categories
of crime.
By
the 1920s, the issue had gained momentum.
The International Association of Chiefs of
Police (IACP) took the lead, as it had in
many police reforms in the early 20th century.
Using a grant, it created a "Committee
on Uniform Crime Records" in 1927. An
advisory group was formed, including then
Bureau Director J. Edgar Hoover, and a technical
staff was assembled to work out the details
of a crime statistics program.
In
1929, a system to classify and report crimes
was developed and adopted by the IACP. And
who would administer the program? The IACP
recommended the Bureau, which seemed the logical
clearinghouse for such information given its
already effective effort to centralize criminal
identification records and its national reach.
As
Congress weighed the issue, the IACP published
the first Uniform Crime Reports bulletin in
January 1930, reporting on crime in 400 cities
and 43 states, a remarkable total considering
that the guidelines had been disseminated
just two months earlier.
Then,
on June 11, 1930-76 years ago this Sunday-Congress
authorized the Bureau to collect, compile,
and distribute crime records, with its
first report due in September (compiling August
stats). One newspaper declared that "Uncle
Sam…is going to put his finger on the
pulse of crime in America."
That
was true, but the hard work of staffing up
the program and making it work lay ahead.
Using our network of Special Agents in Charge
and their relationships with police chiefs
around the nation, we increased the number
of agencies reporting from 800 to 1,400 within
four years and to 5,700 by 1956. We also worked
to encourage better record keeping and reporting
practices, providing training and audits to
help reporting agencies. And we provided detailed
review and follow-up on submissions. Reporting
accuracy quickly increased as the kinks in
the system were worked out.
Over
the years, our Uniform Crime Reporting program
has continued to grow. Its centerpiece-Crime
in the United States-now encompasses 17,000
law enforcement agencies representing 94%
of the US population. The reporting of stats
on law enforcement officers killed in the
line of duty was begun in 1937 and later expanded
to include assaults and more details. And
over the years, specialized summaries like
the annual report on hate crime, added in
1992, were created to highlight specific concerns.
Visit
our Uniform Crime Reports
webpage for the latest figures, detailed
explanations on how to interpret them, and
previous reports back to the mid-1990s.
