The Nation - News from March 21, 1988

The Bureau of Justice Statistics will award grants totaling about $5 million to 20 states and the District of Columbia to assist them in improving their crime reporting systems, the bureau announced. The federal aid, ranging from $18,000 for Delaware to $373,000 for Virginia, will enable the states and district to upgrade their crime information systems and make the information they submit to the FBI more accurate, the bureau said. Under the new system, state and local law enforcement agencies will forward individual records to the FBI each month for selected crimes and arrests rather than submitting monthly summary statistics, as they now do. The new system will enable police departments to describe the crimes in their area more accurately, the bureau said.