Foreword.

In the 1929 Foreword to Uniform Crime Reporting: A Complete Manual for the Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police's Committee on Uniform Crime Reports stated, "The urgent need for national crime statistics in the United States is so well recognized as to require no debate."

That need is as great today as it was 75 years ago. Police executives, governmental officials, and others maintain an "unflagging interest in reliable compilations dealing with crime and criminals."

The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program was created by law enforcement for law enforcement, to meet the need for crime statistics used in operational planning and policymaking. Police departments and sheriff's offices rely on the data to help them support staffing decisions, allocate funding and resources, gauge the effectiveness of specific law enforcement programs, and support legislative and judicial mandates. Many local and state agencies use UCR data to support their requests to secure federal grant monies, to design new crime-fighting initiatives, or to craft anticrime legislation.

UCR data has also become a staple for researchers and criminologists, news and information services, academics, and others seeking a better understanding of crime in the United States. Today's UCR data consumers may range from a renowned criminologist whose research will be widely quoted in the media to the president of a small-town PTA who is preparing documentation on juvenile crime to help obtain funding for after-school programs.

Initiated by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and assigned to the FBI to manage in 1930, the UCR Program has changed a great deal over the years. In order to meet the critical assignment of amassing pertinent crime statistics, the FBI is constantly reconciling the need to change and improve with the need to protect the integrity of the long-running data series upon which law enforcement and the public have come to rely. This year's Crime in the United States reflects some of these well-considered changes. As outlined in the Recent Developments segment of Section I, we have suspended the Crime Index and further refined the Metropolitan Statistical Area concept as part of our efforts to keep the Program vital and relevant to all of its users.

While there have been many such changes since its creation, the fundamentals of the UCR Program have remained constant. First, the UCR Program has never lost sight of its purpose: to collect accurate and pertinent crime data for the daily use of law enforcement, as well as the government and citizens of this nation. Second, the Program has always gathered its data at the grassroots level. It is the law enforcement officers who are in a position to know what crimes have been committed, the results of investigations, and the facts concerning persons arrested for these offenses. This is the source from which the UCR gathers its information.

These fundamentals, coupled with the flexibility to adapt to the needs of its users, make the UCR Program a vital part of the FBI's efforts to support our partners in law enforcement. We continue striving to improve Crime in the United States, and we hope that the 2003 edition will help law enforcement leaders around the country make the best possible decisions to secure safety and prosperity in their communities.