Law Enforcement Public Contact Data Collection
March 14, 2023
In 2017, the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division Advisory Policy Board recommended that the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program begin collecting and reporting the number of police contacts with the public in the following three categories on an annual basis:
- Citizen calls for service
- Unit-/officer-initiated contacts
- Court/bailiff activities
The FBI’s UCR Program will compile these data in the Law Enforcement Public Contact (LEPC) Data Collection to establish a standard national measure of the number of times law enforcement officers have contact with the public. The LEPC is an expansion of annual counts, which includes law enforcement employee counts.
The purpose of collecting this additional information is to provide context to other law enforcement data collections administered by the UCR Program, including the National Use-of-Force Data Collection and the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Data Collection. The use of categories commonly defined among these law enforcement data collections will also help ensure consistency of the data submitted.
Law enforcement agencies can submit the number of contacts with the public using the data logged in their computer-aided dispatch system, records-management system, or other systems (e.g. docket sheets, call logs, etc.) used to facilitate incident response and communication in the field. If such records are not available, agencies may submit an estimated number of contacts based on officers’ workload (e.g. citation counts, street/foot patrol, traffic duty, public outreach, etc.). The use of both actual—and, when necessary, estimated—numbers will account for the variety of circumstances different agencies respond to and allow for better interpretation of these data.
Agencies can use one of three methods to submit annual LEPC data:
- A flat file with a technical specification for bulk submission
- A web services option for bulk submission
- The LEPC submission page of the Collection of Law Enforcement and Crime Tool (COLECT) in the Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP)
Beginning in June 2023, authorized law enforcement agencies and state program managers will be able to obtain accounts within LEEP in preparation to submit data about police contacts with the public. For more information, email the program office at LEPC@fbi.gov.
