Foreword.

Like every other organization and individual in the United States, the FBI has struggled to comprehend the events of September 11, 2001. Apart from investigating the crime scenes in New York City; Somerset County, Pennsylvania; and Arlington County, Virginia (the Pentagon); following leads, and addressing a myriad of concerns resulting from these attacks, the FBI through its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program has struggled with how to report the data to the public. Begun in 1929, the UCR Program captures criminal offenses, which include murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft, reported to local or state law enforcement agencies. In its original design, the creators of the Program probably could not conceive of heinous attacks of domestic or international terrorism being committed within the confines of this Nation. Theirs was a national crime data collection system based on the cooperation of city, county, and state law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting crimes that were a product of the society of the time. However, that society has evolved into a more complex, global society of the twenty-first century that is faced with fighting crimes that previously had been unimaginable. The FBI recognizes that the UCR Program must evolve to be able to capture the crimes of this modern era. As it currently exists, the UCR Program is limited in its ability to report the offenses committed at the World Trade Center, in the airways above Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon. Recognizing the limitations of the Program, yet also recognizing that many agencies and researchers will have a specific, nontraditional application for the statistical data associated with these offenses, the FBI has compiled a special report, which can be found in Section V of this publication. For the most part, the data associated with the events of September 11, 2001, are not included in the standard tables found in Crime in the United States. The number of deaths is so great that combining it with the traditional crime statistics will have an outlier effect that falsely skews all types of measurements in the Program's analyses.

September 11 will always be remembered as a tragic day in the history of this Nation. However, the attacks did serve as a wake-up call to law enforcement and the American public with regard to the shortcomings in the measures we take to protect our country from harm. It has reminded us that we must transform these measures to meet new realities. The UCR Program recognizes that it, too, must transform and equip itself to contend with ever-changing realities. In the coming years, the Program will address these issues and recommit itself to the task of serving, in the best way possible, this Nation and its law enforcement agencies.