The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) conducts annual surveys collected from 90,000 households which asks respondents whether they were victims of crime and if that crime was reported to law enforcement. In 2017, only 45% of violent crimes and 36% of property crimes tracked by BJS were reported to law enforcement. There are many reasons why victims elect to not report crimes. Some may feel that the incident may be too personal or trivial or have the perception law enforcement would not or could not do anything to help. Perception can be reality as in 2017, the FBI using a crime clearance rate measure reported the national clearance rate as 46% for violent crimes and 18% for property crimes.

The use of technology could assist law enforcement with becoming less reactionary to crime already committed and more proactive in predicting where criminal activity is most likely to occur. Software could be utilized to identify trends and develop patterns of activity. Crime prevention methods would be initiated, because the easiest means to solve crime is to prevent it in the first place. The efforts of law enforcement are limited to the factors within its control. As famed risk manager Gordon Graham said, “Predictable is preventable.”

In the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, a law enforcement agency reports that 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: 

• Arrested.
• Charged with the commission of the offense.
• Turned over to the court for prosecution (whether following arrest, court summons, or police notice). 

In certain situations, elements beyond law enforcement’s control prevent the agency from arresting and formally charging the offender. When this occurs, the agency can clear the offense exceptionally. Law enforcement agencies must meet the following four conditions in order to clear an offense by exceptional means. The agency must have: 

• Identified the offender. 
• Gathered enough evidence to support an arrest, make a charge, and turn over the offender to the court for prosecution. 
• Identified the offender’s exact location so that the suspect could be taken into custody immediately. 
• Encountered a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that prohibits the agency from arresting, charging, and prosecuting the offender.