About this Dataset

1.12 Clearance Rates (summary)

This dataset provides the crime clearance rate nationally and for the City of Tempe. An overall clearance rate is developed as part of the Department’s report for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Program. The statistics in the UCR Program are based on reports the Tempe Police Department officially submits to the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS).

In the UCR Program, there are two ways that a law enforcement agency can report that an offense is cleared:

(1) cleared by arrest or solved for crime reporting purposes or

(2) cleared by exceptional means.

An offense is cleared by arrest, or solved for crime reporting purposes, when three specific conditions have been met. The three conditions are that at least one person has been: (1) arrested; (2) charged with the commission of the offense; and (3) turned over to the court for prosecution.

In some situations, an agency may be prevented from arresting and formally charging an offender due to factors outside of the agency's control. In these cases, an offense can be cleared by exceptional means, if the following four conditions are met: (1) identified the offender; (2) gathered enough evidence to support an arrest, make a charge, and turn over the offender to the court for prosecution; (3) identified offender’s exact location so that suspect can immediately be taken into custody; and (4) encountered a circumstance outside law enforcement's control that prohibits arresting, charging and prosecuting the offender.

The UCR clearance rate is one tool for helping the police to understand and assess success at investigating crimes. However, these rates should be interpreted with an understanding of the unique challenges faced with reporting and investigating crimes. Clearance rates for a given year may be greater than 100% because a clearance is reported for the year the clearance occurs, which may not be the same year that the crime occurred. Often, investigations may take months or years, resulting in cases being cleared years after the actual offense. Additionally, there may be delays in the reporting of crimes, which would push the clearance of the case out beyond the year it happened.

This page provides data for the Violent Cases Clearance Rate performance measure.

The performance measure dashboard is available at 1.12 Violent Cases Clearance Rate.

Additional Information

Source: Tempe Police Department (TPD) Versadex Records Management System (RMS) submitted to Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZ DPS) who submits data to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)

Contact (author):

Contact E-Mail (author):

Contact (maintainer): Brooks Louton

Contact E-Mail (maintainer): Brooks_Louton@tempe.gov

Data Source Type: Excel

Preparation Method: Drawn from the Annual FBI Crime In the United States Publication

Publish Frequency: Annually

Publish Method: Manual

Data Dictionary
Organization: City of Tempe
Last updated: 2024-02-09T15:06:50.691356
Tags: safe-and-secure-communities

Tables

Table 1

@usgov.city_of_tempe_1_12_clearance_rates_summary_b1503.table_1

7.2 kB
15 rows
8 columns

CREATE TABLE table_1 (
  "year" BIGINT,
  "date" TIMESTAMP,
  "type" VARCHAR,
  "clearance_rate_percent" DOUBLE,
  "f5_year_average_tempe" DOUBLE,
  "national_rate" DOUBLE,
  "national_rate_5_year_average" DOUBLE,
  "objectid" BIGINT
);