Offense 90I(Runaway) is a person under 18 years of age who has left home without permission of his/her parent(s) or legal guardian.

In January 2011, the FBI UCR Program discontinued the collection of arrest data for the category of runaways. Agencies may continue to collect and submit data on runaways, but the FBI UCR Program will no longer use or publish those data. Should an agency wish to submit data on runaways, they can use the Group B Arrest Report format to report each incident, including the runaway’s apprehension for protective custody. If an LEA chooses to report runaways, the jurisdiction where the runaway resides should report the detention (pickup) of the runaway when another jurisdiction picks up the minor.

CHAPTER 42-28

State Affairs and Government

42-28-46. Development of system monitoring crimes motivated by bigotry and bias.

(a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings:

(1) "Police department" – means all state, municipal and campus police departments within the state of Rhode Island;

(2) "Hate crime" – means any crime motivated by bigotry and bias, including, but not limited to threatened, attempted, or completed acts that appear after investigation to have been motivated by racial, religious, ethnic, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression or disability prejudice or motivated by prejudice against a person who is homeless or is perceived to be homeless. For the purposes of this chapter, the definitions of disability, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression shall be defined as set forth in Rhode Island general laws § 11-24-2.1;

(3) "Hate crime data" – means information, incident reports, records and statistics relating to hate crimes, collected by the state police unit pursuant to this section;

(4) "Incident report" – means account of any individual occurrence of hate crime received or collected by the crime reporting unit pursuant to this section.

(b) The state police shall, by January 1, 1994, develop a system monitoring the occurrence of crimes committed in the state which the evidence of the offense demonstrates was motivated by racial, religious, ethnic bigotry, or bias on any other matter defined as a "hate crime" herein. All police departments within the state shall report monthly the occurrence of such crimes to the state police. The state police shall maintain a permanent record of these offenses categorized by community of occurrence, type of offense, target of offense, and such other information as the department deems relevant. The department shall develop a plan for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of the data regarding such crimes and shall promulgate regulations relating to the collection of hate crime data, as defined in this section, which are submitted by law enforcement agencies, individuals, state and local human rights commissions, and anti-discrimination advocacy organizations.

(c) The state police shall compile and distribute to each police department a listing of all criminal offenses and penalties for those actions defined as "hate crimes" herein. Notice of the provision of these sections shall be primarily posted at each police station.

(d) This section shall not be construed to increase or enhance the penalties against the perpetrators of hate crimes as defined in this section, unless provided for by any other section of law.

The data found on Crime in Rhode Island Online represents crime reported to local and state law enforcement agencies and is not an exhaustive report of all crime that occurs. It is important to consider the various factors that lead to crime activity and crime reporting in a community before interpreting the data. Without these considerations the available data can be deceiving. Factors to consider include population size and density, economic conditions, employment rates, prosecutorial, judicial, and correctional policies, administrative and investigative emphases of law enforcement, citizens’ attitudes toward crime and policing, and the effective strength of the police force.

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.

The Hate Crime Incidents Report provides occurrences of crimes motivated by bigotry or bias including, racial, religious, ethnic, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression or disability prejudice or motivated by prejudice against a person who is homeless or is perceived to be homeless in accordance with § 42-28-46.

The FBI began collecting National Use of Force Data from local and state enforcement agencies on January 1, 2019. The most recent data is available on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer website. Participation by law enforcement agencies is voluntary.

The FBI provides a web portal and bulk electronic submission options for law enforcement agencies to report data directly.

Use-of-Force Data is not captured by the Rhode Island UCR Unit.

Ad-hoc Query located on the Reports Page is a search tool that provides a multitude of search criterion which the user can choose from for Group A and Group B incidents. 

This tool allows the user to download the search results as a CSV or Excel spreadsheet.  The user can select a segment to search (Admin, Offense, Property, Victim, Offender, or Arrestee).  Within the segment the user can search for a specific data element, value, and operator.  There is an unlimited number of data elements that can be searched.

Multiple criteria can be added or removed using this tool.  As the user keeps adding or deleting criteria to the query, the query results are modified accordingly.  To add another row (or rows) or criteria, click the + (plus) icon in the upper right corner.

Click the green ‘Search’ button.

The query results will display below the search criteria section.

Crime rates are indicators of reported crime activity standardized by population.  They are more refined indicators for comparative purposes than are volume figures. 

A crime rate, defined as the number of offenses per 100,000 population, is derived by first dividing a jurisdiction’s population by 100,000 and then dividing the number of offenses by the resulting figure. 

Example: 

a. Population for Jurisdiction, 75,000

b. Number of known burglaries for Jurisdiction for a year, 215

Divide 75,000 by 100,000 = .75

Divide 215 by .75 = 286.7

The burglary rate is 286.7 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The number .75 can now be divided into the totals of any offense class to produce a crime rate for that offense.  The same procedure may be used to obtain arrest rates per 100,000.

Excel Formula

                         COLUMN B     COLUMN C      COLUMN D

ROW 6               75,000          215                =SUM(C6/B6)*100000

The Distribution Breakdown report is similar to the Crime Distribution report and displays two demographic characteristics instead of one. The report can drill down into any one characteristic and display the breakdown of a second characteristic.

The Anomaly Reports go a step beyond the FBI’s validation rules and display incidents that may need additional attention to verify that the incident correctly reflects the details of the crime. These incidents may be correct as they are, but contain an unusual combination of data elements which may generate an FBI request for incident verification or correction.