The number of murders reported in the US has gone up by 4.3% since 2020, but leading officials do not believe this is an accurate picture, since only 11,794 of 18,806 law enforcement agencies chose to submit expanded homicide data.
The number of murders reported in the United States ticked up last year, the FBI said Wednesday, but the bureau warned that changes to its data collection program prevented nearly half of law enforcement agencies — including police in New York City and Los Angeles — from turning over their data.
The incomplete data comes as the FBI and the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics transition to a more granular and comprehensive crime-reporting system, known as the"National Incident-Based Reporting System." National estimates in 2021 are based on data submissions from 52% of law enforcement agencies nationwide. Roughly 48% of law enforcement agencies across the country did not submit any data in 2021, leaving significant gaps in coverage.
"While the FBI did utilize methods for estimation to try to combat gaps in the data, it is fundamentally challenging to do so when such a large swath of data is not present," said Rachael Eisenberg, the senior director of Criminal Justice Reform at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
"Those that didn't… why aren't they being transparent about public safety?" Acevedo added."What are they hiding?"