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Reporting coverage by state

Pick a state and see how many of its police agencies reported all 12 months of 2025 to the FBI, how many reported part of the year, and how many reported nothing, with each list A to Z. It shows where a state's crime figures rest on reports and where they rest on the FBI's estimates.

Informational only, not professional advice. This page is about reporting, not crime: an agency that reported nothing has no rate, and a state is not ranked by its share.

Pick a state

How the counts are made

The FBI Crime Data Explorer holds one report per agency per month. For each agency in a state, CrimeTally counts the months of 2025 for which both its violent crime and its property crime figures are on file, the same rule the agency pages apply before showing a rate. Twelve months is “reported all 12 months”, one to eleven is “part of the year”, and zero is “reported nothing”. The three add up to every agency the FBI lists for the state. The data is from the FBI's September 2026 refresh.

A fourth list, agencies not on the FBI's newer reporting system (NIBRS), overlaps the other three. Since 2021 the FBI accepts reports only through NIBRS, so an agency not on it has usually reported nothing since then.

What a share can't tell you

  • Agencies are not people. A state where many small agencies report nothing can still have most of its residents covered by the large agencies that do. The share counts agencies, not population.
  • Why an agency did not report. The FBI's data does not say.
  • Anything about crime. Reporting coverage is about the data, not about what happened. An agency that reported nothing is not an agency with no crime.

Last reviewed: September 2026

Questions people ask

Why would a police agency not report to the FBI?

Reporting is voluntary. Some agencies never joined the FBI's program, some stopped when the FBI moved to its newer reporting system in 2021 and have not yet switched, and some miss months for ordinary reasons such as staffing or a records system change. The FBI's data does not say why in any one case, and neither does CrimeTally.

What counts as a month reported?

The FBI holds one report per agency per month. CrimeTally counts a month only when the agency's violent crime and property crime figures are both on file for it, the same rule the agency pages use before showing a rate.

Does a low share of agencies reporting mean a state's crime rate is wrong?

It means more of the state's figure is the FBI's estimate rather than reports. The FBI fills gaps by a published method and labels the result an estimate. The State Crime Rates tool shows the share beside every year so you can see how much of a figure rests on reports.

Can I compare states by their reporting share?

You can look at any state's share here, one state at a time. CrimeTally does not list states in order of it: a state with many small agencies that report nothing can still have most of its population covered by the large agencies that do.

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