State crime reporting needs help, says Social Science Research Center

"Blueprint for the Improvement of Criminal History Records in Mississippi" is the final report of a statewide audit of criminal justice agencies' records conducted earlier this year by the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State. The report was commissioned by the Department of Public Safety, the state's top law enforcement agency.

"The objective of the study was to determine the extent to which criminal history records were accurate and complete," said Dr. Melvin C. Ray, coordinator of the center's Mississippi Crime and Justice Research Unit and one of the report's authors.

Ray, also an associate professor of sociology, is one of 21 task force members. The group is co-chaired by Chief Walter Tucker of the Capitol Police Department and Adams County Sheriff William T. Ferrell.

The task force discovered that criminal history records data are "severely underreported" to the Department of Public Safety's Criminal Records Division; that arrests and final dispositions are most often underreported; and that municipal and county law enforcement agencies' records are usually not submitted because of insufficient personnel--and because the agencies are not aware of the CRD's role.

The task force recommended implementing a modern data communication network to gain remote access to automated records. Ray said the task force's report calls on local and state officials to "seriously commit" to improving the quality of criminal history record-keeping and -sharing. In all, the body made 16 recommendations.

"These recommendations, if adopted, will lead to the creation of a computerized criminal history data base and an automated fingerprint identification system," he said. "Mississippi would then be in compliance with national standards and could become a part of what, in law enforcement circles, is known as the Interstate Identification Index."