At the February 22 City Council Meeting, Police Chief Paul Spencer presented the Addison Police Department's (APD) 2021 Annual Report. This report included a statistical review of the year, notable events from the patrol and criminal investigation divisions, and goals and objectives for Fiscal Year 2022.
Addison fully switched to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) format in 2020 in response to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board recommendation to transition all federal, state, county, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies by 2021. APD historically utilized the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for reporting of crime statistics. Implemented 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. Unlike data reported through the UCR, NIBRS goes much deeper because of its ability to provide circumstances and context for crimes like location, time of day, and whether the incident was cleared.
Data collected by APD prior to 2020 under UCR will show a much lower incidence of crime than the data collected under NIBRS because the UCR data only covers a narrow range of criminal activity compared to NIBRS. Comparisons between URC and NIBRS data will not provide an accurate representation of the annual change in overall criminal activity.
Chief Spencer also shared the results of an internal and external audit of its License Plate Recognition and Optical Camera system. This annual audit is an assurance to the public that the department's License Plate Recognition and Optical Camera System has operated according to Council's policy direction, and that all internal activities surrounding its use were found to be in line with those adopted policies and procedures. The Chief also shared that the new technology has been a force multiplier in helping the department respond to crime in the community.
