The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, which began in 1929, collects information on the following crimes reported to law enforcement authorities: homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. OJA is the designated State of Wisconsin Uniform Crime Reporting agency. UCR data are compiled from monthly law enforcement reports submitted to OJA, which then submits data to the FBI.
Wisconsin UCR findings for each calendar year are published initially in a preliminary release in the spring followed by a detailed annual report, Crime and Arrests in Wisconsin, issued in the summer following the calendar year. In addition to information on crime counts and trends, this report includes detailed data on crimes cleared, persons arrested (age, sex, race) for a wide range of crimes, law enforcement personnel (including the number of sworn officers killed or assaulted), and the characteristics of homicides (including age, sex, and race of victims, victim-offender relationships, weapon used, and circumstances surrounding the homicides). Other special reports are also available from the UCR Program.
Following a 5-year redesign effort, at the national level, the UCR Program is undergoing a conversion to a more comprehensive and detailed reporting system, called the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Wisconsin has its own, slightly modified version of an IBR system. NIBRS/IBR will provide detailed information about each criminal incident in 22 broad categories of offenses.
