The Calls for Service dataset includes police service requests for which patrol officers, traffic officers, bike officers and, on occasion, detectives will be dispatched to public safety response. It also includes self-initiated calls for service where an officer witnesses a violation or suspicious activity for which they would respond. This item represents a consolidated item of all records.

Why the Datasets are Organized into Separate Layers 

In January of 2022, the Tempe Police Department completed a major transition in how crimes data is reported, moving from the FBI Uniform Crime Report program to the enhanced National-Incident Based Reporting System, or NIBRS. NIBRS is now the required reporting method for the FBI. The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Program's traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS) was limited in comparison to NIBRS, which offers more detailed data collection that provides a deeper understanding of crime and its circumstances.  

NIBRS captures a wider range of details on crime incidents and can reflect separate offenses occurring during the same event, including information on victims, known offenders, relationships between victims and offenders, arrestees, and property involved in the crimes.  With greater specificity in reporting offenses, NIBRS provides for more accurate and detailed crime-related information, and helps give context to specific crime issues while affording greater analytic capability of crime.  Below is the link to Tempe-specific NIBRS reports. Use the drop-down filters to select Tempe PD, the year, and the type of report. 

Because of these differences, trends and numbers between the two systems should not be directly compared. That’s why we treat 2022 and later (NIBRS) separately from 2021 and earlier (UCR). 

To make the older data easier to browse, we grouped the data from 2021 and earlier into year ranges instead of showing it all at once. This helps with performance and loading speed due to the large count of records. 

For detailed guidance on interpreting calls for service data, as well as data scope and limitations, please refer to the User Guide.

Data Dictionary

Additional Information

Contact Email: PD_DataRequest@tempe.gov

Contact Phone: N/A

Link: N/A

Data Source: Versaterm Informix RMS

Data Source Type: Informix and/or SQL Server

Preparation Method: Automated process

Publish Frequency: Daily

Publish Method: Automatic