Incidents & Offenses

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Incidents & Offenses

Created by Russ Hartle, Modified on Tue, 27 May, 2025 at 11:14 AM by Russ Hartle

Participation in the NIBRS requires LEAs to report certain facts about each criminal incident coming to their attention within their jurisdiction. In most cases, officers capture the data through an incident report when a complainant first reports the crime. In other instances, officers may collect data via a mobile terminal which interfaces with their department’s records management system.

Definition of an Incident

With regard to the NIBRS, the FBI UCR Program defines an incident as one or more offenses committed by the same offender, or group of offenders acting in concert, at the same time and place.

The Concept of Acting in Concert

Acting in concert requires all of the offenders to actually commit or assist in the commission of all of the crimes in an incident. The offenders must be aware of, and consent to, the commission of all of the offenses; or even if nonconsenting, their actions assist in the commission of all of the offenses. See Example 1, Acting in Concert. This is important because the NIBRS considers all of the offenders in an incident to have committed all of the offenses in an incident. The arrest of any offender will clear all of the offenses in the incident. If one or more of the offenders did not act in concert, then the LEA should report more than one incident. See Examples 2 and 3, Acting in Concert.

The Concept of Same Time and Place

The fundamental concept of Same Time and Place presupposes if the same person or group of persons committed more than one crime and the time and space intervals separating them were insignificant, all of the crimes make up a single incident. Normally, the offenses must have occurred during an unbroken time period and at the same or adjoining locations. However, incidents can also be comprised of offenses which by their nature involve continuing criminal activity by the same offenders at different times and places, as long as law enforcement deems the activity to constitute a single criminal transaction. See Example 4, Same Time and Place.

In the SRS, LEAs use the concept of Same Time and Place to determine whether they should apply the Hierarchy Rule to a group of crimes; if so, the agency reports only the crime highest in the hierarchy. Though the NIBRS does not follow the Hierarchy Rule, LEAs must still apply the concept of Same Time and Place to determine whether a group of crimes constitute a single incident. This is crucially important since the application of the concept determines whether they should report the crimes as individual incidents or as a single incident comprised of multiple offenses.

Examples of Acting in Concert and Same Time and Place

Because it is not possible to provide instructions covering all of the situations possible, the reporting agency should use its best judgment in determining how many incidents were involved in some cases.

Example 1, Acting in Concert

During a robbery scenario, one offender began to rape a victim in a bar. The other offender told the rapist to stop and only rob the victim. In this example, there was only one incident with two offenses, i.e., Robbery and Rape. Although the other robber did not consent to the rape, by displaying a gun he prevented someone from coming to the victim’s assistance and thereby assisted in the commission of the crime. The LEA should report one incident with two offenses; both offenders are connected to both victims.

Example 2, Acting in Concert

A domestic argument escalated from a shouting match between a husband and wife to an aggravated assault during which the husband began beating his wife. The wife, in her own defense, shot and killed the husband. The responding officer submitted one incident report. The LEA should have reported this information via the NIBRS as two separate incidents because the husband could not have been acting in concert with the wife in his own killing. The LEA could have submitted one incident involving the Aggravated Assault perpetrated by the husband and the second incident involving the killing. This would have allowed the maintenance of the original incident number for record keeping purposes at the local level and simultaneously satisfied reporting requirements for the NIBRS.

Example 3, Acting in Concert

Two offenders robbed a bar, forcing the bartender to surrender money from the cash register at gunpoint. The robbers also took money and jewelry from three customers. One of the robbers, in searching for more customers to rob, found a female customer in the rest room and raped her there without the knowledge of the other offender. When the rapist returned, both robbers left. In this example, there were two incidents: one involving Robbery and the other involving Rape, because the offenders were not acting in concert in both offenses. The LEA should report two incidents, each with one offense.

Example 4, Same Time and Place

Over a period of 18 months, a computer programmer working for a bank manipulated the bank’s computer and systematically embezzled $70,000. The continuing criminal activity against the same victim constituted a single incident involving the crime of Embezzlement.

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