The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The program generates reliable statistics for use in law enforcement, and also provides information for the public, the media, researchers, and criminal justice students. The program has been providing crime statistics since 1930.
The UCR Program includes data from more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, including local, county, state, tribal, federal, and campus agencies. Agencies participate voluntarily. Here in Palo Alto, we report monthly crime statistics to the California Department of Justice, which in turn, forwards the information to the UCR Program. Note that the statistics may change as reports are updated or revised as new information is received. The FBI then uses that information to publish their annual Uniform Crime Report; visit the UCR Publications website to download those reports.
For more information on the UCR Program, or to compare crime levels across jurisdictions, visit the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting website.
In 2021, the UCR Program phased out the historic Summary Reporting System (SRS) and transitioned agencies to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The 2022 numbers are the first set of crime statistics in Palo Alto to be reported using NIBRS. NIBRS is an improved system that enhances the overall quality of data by reporting on more categories of crime (expanding from eight types of crime to 34), as well as reporting all types of offenses occurring within a single crime incident. This means that the very same incident could, potentially, result in additional statistics being reported in 2022 than in prior years.