The Rhode Island UCR program is National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) certified; certification was achieved in June 2005 for flat file submission and recertified in August 2021 for XML submission. To ensure the quality and integrity of data collected and submitted to the Rhode Island UCR program and, consequently, the FBI, the Rhode Island UCR program required contributing agencies, to satisfy certification requirements.  Rhode Island has been a NIBRS only state since 2005.

Each local and state law enforcement agency went through a 6-month reporting certification process.  The certification process required each agency to submit 6 consecutive months and ensure system compatibility, system responsiveness, and statistical reasonableness as defined by the FBI NIBRS Certification Requirements.

CHAPTER 12-24
Uniform Crime Reporting System

12-24-1. Reporting System. – A uniform crime reporting system shall be established under the direction, control, and supervision of the superintendent of state police. The superintendent of state police shall have the power and duty, by any rules and regulations that he or she may deem necessary to collect and gather any information from local police departments and the enforcement division of the department of environmental management that may be and is prescribed in this chapter.

12-24-2. Reports. – The police department of each city and town and the enforcement division of the department of environmental management, once each quarter, upon a date and form prescribed and furnished by the superintendent of state police, shall forward to the division of state police a crime report. Each reporting department shall report only on cases within its jurisdiction and upon which it is making, or has made, the primary police investigation. The report shall be called the uniform crime report and shall cover crimes reported and otherwise processed during the reporting period. It shall contain the number and nature of offenses committed, the disposition of those offenses, and any other information that the superintendent of state police shall specify relating to the method, frequency, cause, and prevention of crime. Under no circumstances shall the name of any person be reported.

12-24-3. Compilation of Reports. – Upon receipt of the quarterly uniform crime reports from the reporting agencies, the division of state police shall prepare a statewide compilation of the statistics contained in the reports, and the resulting statistical compilation shall be available to any governmental law enforcement agency in the state, the judiciary committees of the senate and the house of representatives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, upon request. The statistics made available through the uniform crime report shall be used for the purpose of studying the causes, trends, and effects of crime in this state and for intelligence upon which to base a sounder program of crime detection and prevention and the apprehension of criminals.

12-24-4. Other Agencies. – Any governmental agency, not falling within the description of those required to submit the quarterly uniform crime report set forth in § 12-24-2, which desires to submit a report, shall be furnished with the proper forms by the division of state police. When a report is received by the division of state police from a governmental police agency not required to make a report, the information contained in the report shall be included within the monthly compilation provided for in § 12-24-3.