About Crime In Alabama

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Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet a need for reliable, uniform crime statistics for the nation. In 1930, the FBI was tasked with collecting, publishing, and archiving those statistics. Data submitted by local law enforcement agencies through each state's UCR Program or Statistical Analysis Centers is utilized to produce annual statistical publications. Special reports using data from the UCR's large database are published as well.

Alabama Statistical Analysis Center

The Code of Alabama 1975, as amended, provides the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) with the duty of compiling and publishing annual statistics on the nature and extent of crime in Alabama. Since 1977, ACJIC has administered the Alabama Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) and has utilized crime-related data submitted components of the criminal justice system to conduct objective analyses of statewide policy issues. Crime in Alabama and specialty publications produced by Alabama's SAC is provided below.

Crime in Alabama is an annual statistical report produced by the SAC housed at ACJIC. The report has been published annually since 1977. The Alabama SAC also produces other special reports utilizing UCR data. These reports are also available at the bottom of the page.

The Crime in Alabama reports include:

  • The Part I Crime Overview includes detailed statistics on the number of reported homicides, forcible rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults. Also included in the Part I Crime Overview are detailed statistics on the reported property crimes of burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
  • The State of Alabama Crime Trends reflects the percent change within Alabama for consecutive years (each year compared to the prior year).
  • The Part II Crimes Overview includes arrest information on the number of liquor and drug abuse arrests and the number of drug sale and possession arrests.
  • The Law Enforcement Employee Data provides statistics on the number of sworn law enforcement and civilian personnel working at the reporting Alabama law enforcement agencies and includes data on the number of law enforcement officers killed or assaulted during the year.
  • Appendix A reflects the arrests reported to ACJIC, itemized by municipal police department, by county Sheriff's office, by Drug Task Force, and by University/College police departments. Appendix B reflects the crimes reported in each Alabama county, by law enforcement agencies. Appendix C indicates the percent change in offenses known to law enforcement by population group and region, respectively.
  • All data in the reports represent a snapshot of the number of crimes reported to ACJIC's UCR program. Accordingly, individuals are cautioned against using these tabulations to draw conclusions by making direct comparisons between cities or individual agencies. The figures used in the reports were submitted voluntarily by law enforcement agencies throughout Alabama. It is important to remember that crime is a social problem and, therefore, a concern of the entire community. The efforts of law enforcement are limited to the factors within its control. Factors affecting crime, such as economic conditions of the area, transient population, culture, education, climate, attitudes of the victims toward crime and police, and crime reporting practices of citizens are not measured by UCR. It is difficult to draw conclusions or make valid comparisons between cities and jurisdictions using only the crime or arrest data in this publication which may lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents. Valid assessments are possible only with careful study and analysis of the range of unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction.

Beginning January 1, 2010, ACJIC also requires that law enforcement agencies submit all UCR statistics, including arsons, to the state's UCR repository maintained by ACJIC electronically rather than the historic "paper" method. ACJIC provides, at no cost to law enforcement agencies without the capability to already submit electronically, access to and training on its UCR Local Template for Reporting and Analysis (ULTRA) software which allows electronic UCR reports to be submitted to the State's UCR repository. This electronic submission allows collection of offenses and arrests in greater detail than previous "paper" submission methods, and AJIC can now extract arson data directly from offense reports submitted electronically; therefore, Alabama's arson statistics are more complete than in previous years. Therefore, beginning with the 2011 Crime in Alabama Report, Alabama's arson statistics are more complete than in previous years.

Who We Are

Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA)

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) was created by Act 2013-67 and represents the consolidation and realignment of 12 state law enforcement agencies and functions into one entity. ALEA is responsible for the functions and missions of the Alabama Department of Homeland Security, Department of Public Safety, Alabama Bureau of Investigation, Fusion Center, Criminal Justice Information Center, Marine Police, Alcoholic Beverage Control Board Enforcement Division, Department of Revenue Enforcement, Forestry Commission Investigations, Agriculture and Industry Investigations, Public Service Commission Enforcement, and Office of Prosecution Services Computer Forensic Laboratories.

The mission of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is to efficiently provide quality service, protection, and safety for the State of Alabama through the utilization of consolidated law enforcement, investigative, and support services. As part of this mission, ALEA gathers statistics that are submitted to it my state, county, and municipal agencies on a regular basis.

Institute of Data and Analytics (IDA)

The IDA is the research hub of The University of Alabama's College of Business. Their mission is to promote the creation, transformation, and distribution of knowledge through applied analytic sciences for the advancement of evidence-based research and business intelligence. The IDA serves as the statistical-arm of ALEA for analyzing their crime data and providing the dashboards and tools available through this portal.

Citing This Data

For research publications, please use the citation below to reference the data and analyses within this site:

Hudnall, M., Lewis, D., Parton, J, (2024, Dec 21). Crime In Alabama. Retrieved from https://crime.alabama.gov