CITIZENS CRIME COMMISSION URGES NYPD TO RELEASE AUDITS ON PRECINCT CRIME NUMBERS.

A press release from the Citizens Crime Commission:

 

In order to best address continuing questions that some of the NYPD crime reporting may have been compromised due to pressure asserted by the Compstat process, the Citizens Crime Commission said today The New York Police Department (NYPD) could remove any doubt about the integrity of its crime numbers by embracing transparency and releasing all details from its internal audits of crime statistics. The call comes as a new survey conducted by John Eterno and Eli Silverman suggests that officials felt pressure to downgrade index crime to the point of manipulation of statistics.

 

“While the NYPD continues to do excellent work, this independent survey raises deeply troubling questions, but lacks specifics. The public is fully entitled to be assured that reported crime data is accurate,” Richard Aborn, President of the Citizens Crime Commission, said today. “The best way to re-assure the public is for the NYPD to release all details of its twice-a-year audit of each precinct's crime numbers; including the specific results of each precinct's audit, the audit methodology, sample size, degree of statistical reliability, the office within NYPD that conducts the audit and any discipline that follows. This is a case where transparency will serve both the NYPD and the public.”

 

The new survey, conducted by Eterno, a retired NYPD captain, and Silverman, a professor emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, charges that former officials working in the Compstat era “felt enormous pressure to downgrade index crime compared with pre-Compstat era's commanders.” Respondents in the survey further suggest that the pressure to downgrade crime numbers “combined with lesser pressure to maintain crime data integrity has contributed to manipulation of crime statistics.”

 

The Citizens Crime Commission is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organization working to reduce crime and to improve the criminal justice system and the safety of New York City. In the last two decades, the Commission has been a leading advocate on key issues such as: creating alternatives to incarceration, improving juvenile justice, judicial reform, improving police management, and developing more effective police tactics.

 

For more information on the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, please visit our website: www.nycrimecommission.org