Search and explore FBI NIBRS crime data through a fast API and modern interface
Website: https://nibrssearch.org
Source Code: https://github.com/that-dog-eater/nibrs-search
NIBRS Search is a fast platform for exploring FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) crime data.
It provides a high-performance API and modern web interface for searching, filtering, and analyzing incident-level crime records across the United States.
The goal is to make large public safety datasets easier to access for:
- researchers
- journalists
- students
- civic tech developers
- policy analysts
- Fast search: Query millions of NIBRS incidents quickly using a DuckDB-based data warehouse.
- Clean API: Simple REST API built with FastAPI.
- Modern UI: Interactive search interface built with Next.js.
- Structured data: Crime incidents normalized and stored in columnar Parquet datasets.
- Advanced filtering: Filter by year, state, offense code, weapon, location, and more.
- Incident bundles: Retrieve related data such as arrests and offenses for each incident.
- Open data focus: Designed for researchers, journalists, and students working with public datasets.
The project consists of two main components.
The NIBRS Search interface provides a fast way to explore incident-level crime data from the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System.
- Search bar – Quickly search incidents using keywords or identifiers.
- Filter panel – Narrow results by state, year, offense codes, weapons, location type, and other attributes.
- Incident results – Displays a list of matching incidents with key information.
- Incident detail pages – Each incident can be opened to view associated offenses, arrests, and related data.
- Enter a keyword or identifier into the search bar.
- Apply filters from the left panel to refine results.
- Browse the returned incidents.
- Click an incident to view the full record and associated data bundle.
The interface is designed to allow users to quickly move from a broad search to a specific incident record.
The export system allows users to download search results for further analysis.
- JSON – Structured machine-readable format for developers and APIs.
- CSV – Spreadsheet-friendly format for tools like Excel, Google Sheets, and R.
- Full incident bundles – Export incidents together with related offenses and arrests.
- Perform a search using the search bar and filters.
- Review the returned incident results.
- Select the Export option.
- Choose the desired format (JSON or CSV).
- Download the dataset for local analysis.
Exports are generated directly from the API, ensuring the downloaded data matches the search results displayed in the interface.
This makes it easy to move from exploration to deeper analysis using tools such as:
- Python
- R
- Excel / Google Sheets
- data science notebooks
This project is licenced under the terms of the MIT license.