I hope the New Year is off to a great start for all of you. Now that the comatose glow from the holidays has worn off, for some it’s back to trying to run away from the problems created in 2014 and several years prior. Last month, The Los Angeles Times covered several stories concerning LAPD ‘cookbooks’ as I call them, where violent crime statistics were categorized incorrectly and underreported to paint a picture of L.A. as kind of a Mayberry with no hard crime. If the public cant believe LAPDs crime stats, can they believe the departments arrest report, probable cause, search warrant affidavits, or court testimony? The LAPD stats have been suspect for over a decade- not only the reclassification issues, but the initial reporting that reports burglaries as thefts, auto thefts as embezzlement or domestic violence cases classified as Part II crimes regardless of the circumstances (just to name a few). You can read the May 2006 advisory I released here--> bernardparks/files/000-8.14_ParksSaysLAPDCookinTheBooksonCrimeStatisticsRelease.pdf that criticized the way domestic violence and other offenses were categorized. The real goal of these crime stats irregularities was to manufacture a Part I crime picture that reflected a consistent crime reduction on paper. Its unfortunate that this city with its significant investment in public safety cannot rely on its law enforcement officials to accurately and honestly report its crime stats which is the most basic of its responsibilities. After all that cooking, you gotta set the books out to cool. Although the Times reported that violent crime has risen in the city the first time in 12 years, given the shoddy recordkeeping, I could go to Vegas or Pechanga with my bet that 2014 was not the first year the city experienced such a crime increase. I hope the Times continues to monitor this issue, specifically the length of time these reclassification errors covered, identifying personnel that were responsible for these errors and corrective actions that will be taken and what efforts will be made by LAPD to correct prior years’ stats so that there is an accurate historical comparison.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 17:39:46 +0000
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