The Florida Statistical Analysis Center (FSAC) was established within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) in April, 1986 under a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The BJS has set up a national network of state Statistical Analysis Centers (SAC) with a twofold purpose: to enhance the capabilities of the states in developing policy-relevant statistical information to meet their own needs, and to make state-level data available to the BJS for national compilations and studies. SACs are operating in 53 states and territories of the United States.

The FSAC's primary functions are to analyze criminal justice data and prepare statistical reports for policy-makers, planners, and program developers; and to serve as a resource for the media, academicians, students, and others researching crime in Florida. The FSAC also acts as a "gateway" to Florida's criminal justice agencies for out-of-state organizations and individuals. The FSAC's reports cover a wide range of criminal justice issues and are available to the general public.

The FSAC’s location within the FDLE gives it a unique access to criminal justice policy makers. This location facilitates its use of the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), the Computerized Criminal History File (CCH), the Offender-Based Tracking Statistics (OBTS), and the Automated Training Management System (ATMS) databases. Additionally, FDLE houses expertise in the areas of data analysis, computer technology, and data collection processes.

The FSAC director serves as liaison between the SAC and Florida's criminal justice community, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA) and its members. JRSA is a national nonprofit organization of state SAC directors, researchers, and practitioners throughout government, academia, and criminal justice organizations. Through state dues and grant support from BJS, JRSA functions as an association of the SACs. The JRSA is governed by a seven-member Executive Committee, five of whom are elected from among current SAC directors. Florida's SAC Director is currently serving on the Executive Committee as Past President.

The JRSA recognizes outstanding achievements by the SACs each year at the annual BJS/JRSA conference. The FSAC has twice received an award for having an Exemplary Criminal Justice Web Site, recognized in 2004 and again in 2007. The FSAC Web Site was selected for being user-friendly and having consistent and easy navigation, as well as the availability of crime data and statistics in a variety of formats. FSAC staff members work to maintain a web site where users can find the information they need, and continue to develop reports and provide data for use by its visitors.

In 2002, the FSAC received the Technical Innovation Award at the annual conference for the development of the Crime Research Information System (CRIS). The CRIS contains data from FDLE, including the Computerized Criminal History (CCH) system, Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), and the Automated Training Management System (ATMS). The project focused on “liberating” data from transactional systems for analysis purposes. Because FDLE uses a variety of information systems to collect, process and store data about crime in Florida, comparisons across databases are difficult without the use of a tool such as CRIS.

In addition to national recognition, the FSAC has received multiple Davis Productivity Awards for the work it does in support of other functions within the FDLE.