There are four primary federal submissions, and each one operates a bit differently.

1. NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System)

NIBRS is the core monthly crime report. When local agencies submit this data, the FBI checks it for accuracy and generates two types of feedback files:

  • EDS Files: For Errors.

  • WDS Files: For Warnings.

Depending on how a given state's implementation is configured, handling these files happens in one of two ways:

  • Automated Systems: Some states (currently AZ, CO, ND, TN) use automated web services. In these configurations, both errors and warnings are processed by the system automatically, requiring no manual steps from staff. Errors and warning are automatically shown on the Errors and Warnings page.

  • Manual Systems: In standard configurations, the state administrator presses the button to create the FBI submission and manually uploads to the FBI environment. The FBI processes the file and generates the EDS and WDS files. The state administrator can then ask Crime Insight to process the EDS file.  The name of the EDS file is critical -- when it it processed, it is automatically linked to the created FBI submission file and the errors are linked to the original submission. These errors can be viewed on the FBI Submissions page and also appear on the NIBRS Errors and Warnings page. Warnings reported in the WDS file cannot be loaded into Crime Insight, but it is expected that most of them would have been reported in Crime Insight when the agency uploaded the file.

2. Use-of-Force Data Collection

This system tracks actions by police officers that result in serious bodily injury or death of a subject, or the discharge of a firearm.

Submission of Use of Force data to the FBI starts in the same way as the manual submission described above for NIBRS. In the case of Use of Force, the file created is actually a zip file with a separate file for each incident or zero report.

When the generated zip is uploaded via the FBI's portal, the system returns a new zip file with any errors/warnings found. Staff must manually review these reports to investigate why specific records were flagged. 

Future updates aim to fully automate this process, making it as seamless as automated NIBRS reporting.

3. Police Employee (PE) Data

PE submissions provide a snapshot of law enforcement personnel counts to ensure baseline consistency across the country.

Like NIBRS, the FBI generates error (EDS) and warning (WDS) files for these reports. However, because personnel counts change rarely and are highly predictable, the system does not automatically process these feedback files. A manual review of the files will reveal any errors that need correcting. The number of errors is typically extremely low—usually only appearing when a specific local agency isn't fully registered or set up in the FBI's system yet.

4. DCRA (Death in Custody Reporting Act)

This reporting ensures transparency regarding any fatalities that occur while an individual is in police custody or detained in a correctional facility.

Unlike the other three programs, which go directly to the FBI, DCRA data is submitted to the BJA (Bureau of Justice Assistance). The submission format is unique—typically an Excel spreadsheet designed to feed directly into the BJA portal. Because this process sits outside the standard FBI pipelines, any data discrepancies or formatting issues must be reviewed and corrected manually by staff.