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This study explores the question of how the organization of state programs might positively influence the data quality of the state's incident-based reporting data and its National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data submissions. To investigate this topic, the programs of two states (Tennessee and Vermont) identified as adept at resolving data quality issues are described. These descriptions show that these two state programs have taken measures to implement the quality assurance programs and procedures recommended in The Blueprint for the Future of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program: Final Report of the UCR Study. Given that some states have undertaken very different and very aggressive quality control programs, subsequent research should be done to assess the effects of these programs on the quality of NIBRS submissions.

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The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is a law enforcement statistical system open to unreported information due to its voluntary nature. As such, there needs to be a valid and accepted means to estimate official reports of crime for those different levels of geography where reporting may be incomplete. Current methods of imputing and modeling UCR data, which have not been updated since the 1960s, are based upon conceptualizations of law enforcement agencies that may no longer be valid. These older models do not appropriately represent the law enforcement assessment of space and place and its effects on discretionary recording behavior. The number of specialized agencies that share jurisdiction and population with primary law enforcement agencies has increased since early data modeling techniques were developed around the 1960s. This study explores the connection between the policing and the collection of crime data to advance our understanding of how differences among types of law enforcement may impact the discretionary decision to record data. To explore this topic, I have divided this study into three papers touching on differing dimensions of place, scale, and uncertainty connected to the recording of law enforcement data. The data for these papers includes national UCR Program data, as well as calls for service and recorded incident data from two law enforcement agencies in the mid-South