In 2023, murder and manslaughter charges had the highest crime clearance rate in the United States, with 57.8 percent of all cases being cleared by arrest or so-called exceptional means. Motor vehicle theft cases had the lowest crime clearance rate, at 8.2 percent. What is crime clearance? Within the U.S. criminal justice system, criminal cases can be cleared (or closed) one of two ways. The first is through arrest, which means that at least one person has either been arrested, charged with an offense, or turned over to the court for prosecution. The second way a case can be closed is through what is called exceptional means, where law enforcement must have either identified the offender, gathered enough evidence to arrest, charge, and prosecute someone, identified the offender’s exact location, or come up against a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that keeps them from arresting and prosecuting the offender. Crime in the United States Despite what many people may believe, crime in the United States has been on the decline. Particularly in regard to violent crime, the violent crime rate has almost halved since 1990, meaning that the U.S. is safer than it was almost 30 years ago. However, due to the FBI's recent transition to a new crime reporting system in which law enforcement agencies voluntarily report crime data, it is possible that figures do not accurately reflect the total amount of crime in the country.

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 in 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 InformationSource: Tempe Police Department (TPD) Versadex Records Management System (RMS) submitted to Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZ DPS), which submits data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)Contact (author): Contact E-Mail (author): Contact (maintainer): Brooks LoutonContact E-Mail (maintainer): Brooks_Louton@tempe.govData Source Type: ExcelPreparation Method: Drawn from the Annual FBI Crime In the United States PublicationPublish Frequency: AnnuallyPublish Method: ManualData Dictionary

In 2020, around 28.5 percent of all known rape offenses in cities in the United States were cleared by arrest or by exceptional means. In that same year, 52.3 percent of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter cases in U.S. citites were cleared by arrest or by exceptional means.

In 2023, the clearance rate for robberies in the South of the United States stood at 24.5 percent. The clearance rate for robberies was highest in the Northeast, at 38.3 percent. Crime clearance is when an arrest is made in a case, or it is cleared by exceptional means.

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

The data within only represent 2019 and prior. As of January 2020, Mesa PD transitioned crime reporting to the FBI Unified Crime Reporting (UCR) Program from the Summary Reporting System (SRS) format to the new National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) format. For current clearance rate data based on NIBRS reporting standard please navigate to: https://citydata.mesaaz.gov/Police/Police-Case-Clearance-Rates/wzgc-a7ci

A case is considered “cleared” when it is cleared by arrest or exceptional means. Cases credited as “cleared” in a given month or year may have been opened in a previous month or year. For this reason, the clearance rate for a given period may be above 100%. For information and definitions about calculating clearance rates visit https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/clearances

This operations dashboard shows historic and current data related to this performance measure. The performance measure dashboard is available at 1.12 Violent Cases Clearance Rate. Data DictionaryDashboard embed also used by Tempe's Strategic Management and Diversity Office.

In 2020, around 37.2 percent of all known rape offenses in metropolitan counties in the United States were cleared by arrest or by exceptional means. For murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, 61.8 percent of known cases were cleared by arrest or exceptional means.

Analysis of ‘1.12 Clearance Rates (summary)’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/ac7cf429-0791-455f-9303-c44fc8c14e31 on 11 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

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

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

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 in 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 InformationSource: Tempe Police Department (TPD) Versadex Records Management System (RMS) submitted to Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZ DPS), which submits data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)Contact (author): Contact E-Mail (author): Contact (maintainer): Brooks LoutonContact E-Mail (maintainer): Brooks_Louton@tempe.govData Source Type: ExcelPreparation Method: Drawn from the Annual FBI Crime In the United States PublicationPublish Frequency: AnnuallyPublish Method: ManualData Dictionary

The Indian state of Kerala had a case clearance rate of about *** percent in the high court in 2022. By contrast, the state of Rajasthan had only about ** percent of clearance rate that year. Five states in the country had no women judges in their high courts.

This data set is no longer compiled by the Ministry of the Solicitor General. The weighted clearance rate is based on the same principles as the Police Reported Crime Severity Index. In these figures, serious offences are assigned a higher "weight" than less serious offences. For example, solving homicides and robberies has a greater contribution to the overall weighted clearance rate than solving minor theft or mischief cases. The data can be accessed from Statistics Canada.

crime-rate police police-data safe-and-secure-communities ucr violent-cases-clearance-rate-pm-1-12

Monthly State Court case clearance rates by case type (civil, misdemeanor, traffic)

In 2023, the crime clearance rate in Indonesia stood at approximately **** percent of cases. This was an increase from the previous year. In contrast to previous years of progress, 2022 marked an all-time low within the observed timeframe.

This dataset is a summarized table of clearance rates per month, per case category. This is computed from data on the number of cases assigned and the number of cases disposed. It comes from the Odyssey system and is updated daily.

In French criminal courts, the clearance rate was higher than the European median for the Supreme Court, but lower for the first instance and the second instance in 2022. For instance, the clearance rate in criminal courts of the second instance was ** percent in France, compared to the European median of ** percent. In addition, a clearance rate exceeding 100 percent means that the court is able to resolve more cases than it has been seized with, and thus the backlog of cases is decreasing.

In 2023, police in Germany solved 92.3 percent of murder cases. The clearance rate for murder cases during the specified time period remained high.

In 2023, traffic crimes had the highest clearance rate in Norway, reaching 83 percent. Other types of crimes had the second-highest clearance rate at 64 percent, followed by drug-related offenses. On the other hand, only 16 percent of the cases of vandalism were solved, and 18 percent of the cases of theft, robbery, and burglary, which accounted for the highest share of crimes that year. In total, the clearance rate of the Police in Norway was over 40 percent in 2023.

In 2023, police in Germany solved almost 91 percent of drug-related offenses. Figures have remained fairly stable over the last decade but have decreased slightly.