Crime & Safety
Officers Say They're Pressured to Keep Crime Stats Low
Some say they're pressured by their supervisors to classify more crimes as misdemeanors, rather than felonies.
Some New York City police officers say they’ve been pressured by their bosses to reduce the number of felony incidents reported in an effort to keep crime statistics low, according to the New York Times.
Although Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly produced a decline in crime and maintained a perception that the city was a much safer place than in years past, in truth, the yearly crime rate rose in 2011 and is currently another 4.4 percent higher than last year, the Times reported.
Kelly created a panel in January 2011 to analyze the crime-reporting system, but the panel has not yet issued a public report. In addition, the NYPD conducts regular audits of police reports to detect misclassified crimes. In in 2011, the error rate was 1.5 percent.
Find out what's happening in Bayside-Douglastonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In a review of more than 100 police reports from the past four months provided to the Times, the paper found a number of instances in which the police report made the crime out to be less serious than the district attorney – or a victim – would argue subsequently.
One supervisor told the paper it was common for officers “to tweak the complaint reports” after pressure from sergeants and lieutenants and to “leave out something” or “change the facts of the situation to make it a non-felony crime.”
Find out what's happening in Bayside-Douglastonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“Do I feel that supervisors based on some real or perceived pressure may reclassify crimes? Yes,” said Wilford Pinkney, a former detective who retired in 2009.