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GlossaryReports, outcomes, and case status

Unfounded report

An unfounded report is classified under stated rules as not being the reported offense. Learn why unfounded differs from an unsolved case or a deliberately false report.

An unfounded report is a report classified under the applicable agency or reporting-program rules as not constituting the alleged offense. The term needs a named standard because local meanings differ. It is not automatically a finding that the caller deliberately lied, and it should not be used as a synonym for an unsolved or inactive case.

Identify the classification rule

The FBI's NIBRS User Manual, version 2025.0, includes an unfounded value for a previously reported offense determined not to be a crime. That is a reporting classification tied to a specified manual, not a court verdict about the reporting person's conduct. FBI NIBRS manual

Local case-management systems can also use the term. VCU's investigations policy describes unfounded incidents as those in which the alleged offense did not occur. The local case status and a national statistical value should be interpreted within their own systems rather than assumed identical. VCU investigations policy

A reader should examine what was unfounded: one offense, the whole incident, or a particular allegation. A record with several allegations can require a more precise account than a single case-level label supplies.

Example

Hypothetical example: A resident reports a vehicle stolen after finding its usual parking space empty. Staff later verify that it was moved with the owner's authorization and was not stolen. The agency changes the theft classification under its unfounded rules.

The later information explains why no theft is recorded in this example. It does not establish that the original report was intentionally deceptive. An honest misunderstanding and a knowingly false statement are different propositions requiring different evidence.

Common confusion

An inactive case can concern a real reported offense with no current leads. An unfounded classification concerns whether the reported offense occurred or met the relevant classification criteria. Lack of an arrest does not make a case unfounded.

Unable to locate describes an unsuccessful effort to find a subject or condition. That outcome alone does not establish that no offense occurred. Acquittal is a court result, not a police unfounding decision.

Reading an unfounded total

Check the standard, version, counting unit, and treatment of reclassified records. Distinguish original reports from the final statistical release. A total of unfounded offenses cannot be described as a total of deliberate false reports without separate evidence about intent. Changes in review or coding practices can also affect comparisons across time.

Sources