TO: Mayor and Commissioners
FROM: Chief Javaro Sims, Police Department
THROUGH: George Gretsas, City Manager
DATE: May 5, 2020
Title
APPROVAL TO SUBMIT APPLICATION FOR FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT FY 2019 FIBRS IMPLEMENTATION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
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Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Motion to approve application for Florida Department of Law Enforcement FY 2019 FIBRS Implementation Assistance Program
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Background:
The Delray Beach Police Department is requesting approval to apply for the funds to assist our agency with the transition to the Florida Incident-Based Reporting System (FIBRS). FIBRS is State of Florida-specific National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS is supposed to improve the overall quality of crime data collected by law enforcement. NIBRS captures details on each single crime incident, as well as on separate offenses within the same incident, including information on victims, known offenders, relationships between victims and offenders, arrestees, and property involved in the crimes. The data goes much deeper than the Uniform Crime Reporting system (UCR) which is the FBI’s existing program for collecting, publishing, and archiving crime statistics. NIBRS has the ability to provide circumstances and context for crimes. It includes all offenses within a single incident and additional aspects about each event, like location, time of day, and whether the incident was cleared. Ultimately, NIBRS will improve the detail and overall quality of crime data, which will help law enforcement and communities around the country use resources more strategically and effectively. The Law Enforcement agencies are required to transition from UCR program to NIBRS only data collection by January 1, 2021.
The funding under this program can be used for reasonable costs for software, hardware, and contracted labor that directly support an agency's ability to report FIBRS compliant data to the state. This includes labor and software costs for validation testing to ensure conformance with the FIBRS standards. The funding can also be used for costs related to training with agency's Records Management System (RMS) vendor, as well as costs related to FIBRS data migration.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is currently working on a new submission process that will allow agencies to submit NIBRS, Use-of-Force, and LinX data all at the same time if it is appropriate and agencies choose to do so; which would cut out duplicate data submission processes in favor of a more streamlined process. Since this is still being worked on by FDLE, some of the costs are unknown at this time and will have to be estimated for the purpose of the grant application; if the FDLE is able to articulate that the streamlined submission process is beneficial to the agencies who choose to participate regardless of the cost associated with it. The Delray Beach Police Department is planning, at the minimum, to apply for funding for the training with our Records Management System (RMS) vendor, Superion LLC/Central Square. The vendor's estimate for a one day remote training is $2,240 and a three (3) day on-site training is $8,900. Some agencies will be using the on-site training for their "Train the Trainer" and use the one-day training as an end user class.
If it is determined that the participation in the streamlined submission process for NIBRS, Use-of-Force, and LinX is necessary for our agency, the costs are estimated at $32,620 for LinX interface with an annual maintenance cost of $5,000 and $5,000 annual cost for Use-of-Force application. While LinX interface cost would be eligible for the funding under this grant, maintenance costs are not eligible and neither would be the annual cost of the Use-of-Force application as under this grant, all awarded funds must be encumbered or expended by June 30, 2021.
City Attorney Review:
Approved as to form and legal sufficiency.
Funding Source/Financial Impact:
There is no match requirement. If awarded, the grant funding would provide for training costs and implementation costs related to transition from UCR to FIBRS. The law enforcement agencies are required to transition from UCR program to NIBRS only data collection by January 1, 2021.
Timing of Request:
The grant application needs to be submitted by May 1, 2020.