New Public Safety Data Dashboard Released For Baltimore County

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — In the latest effort to increase government transparency and accountability, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski has released a new comprehensive 2021 Public Safety Data Dashboard, where residents can view detailed information about crime.

“Data-driven policing is an important tool in keeping our communities safe, helping to identify emerging trends and preventing crime,” Olszewski said in a statement. “This new dashboard represents another important step forward in creating a culture of transparency – and we're pleased that the data show that crime continues to decrease across our communities and that Baltimore County remains a safe place to live, work, and raise a family."

As of January 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigations transitioned to reporting crime data utilizing the National Incident-Based Reporting Systems. Baltimore County has joined every law enforcement agency across the nation in a mandatory transition to NIBRS. Baltimore County’s public safety data had previously been reported to the Maryland State Police and the FBI through Summary Reporting Systems.

Changes in reporting through NIBRS include:

• Reporting each unique offense separately per each incident of crime. Where the discontinued SRS methodology required agencies to report the most serious offense that took place during an incident, NIBRS data includes all offenses occurring during each incident.
• Revising and expanding definitions and categories of offenses
• Providing more specificity in reporting and categorizing offenses

The redesigned public safety data dashboard released reports new NIBRS data beginning Jan. 1 and will be updated on a monthly basis.

“The Baltimore County Police Department is focused on a data driven strategy to reduce crime across our county," Baltimore County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt said. "Extending the data dashboard to provide this additional information reinforces our commitment to transparency and accountability. We encourage members of the community to stay engaged as we work collaboratively to keep Baltimore County safe."

Additionally, Baltimore County released a second dashboard summarizing SRS crime data from 2017-2020. According to this annual data, between 2017 and 2020 Baltimore County experienced major reductions in major crime categories, including:

• Homicides: 5.7 percent decrease
• Robbery: 42.8 percent decrease
• Burglary: 42.6 percent decrease
• Theft: 36.1 percent decrease
• Motor vehicle theft: 33.5 percent decrease
• Trafficking: 93.3 percent decrease

Due to the technical differences between the methodologies, direct statistical comparisons will be unable to be made between prior years’ data and the data contained in the new dashboard.