Search
NYC Crime: Up or Down?
Generally crime goes up the worse the economy gets. This is a pretty simple relationship: people who have a stake in society tend to follow society's laws more than people who feel they have been left behind by society. I also know from experience that at least in Brooklyn the criminal courts are packed with cases. On grand jury duty you might hear as many as 40 cases in 2 weeks. And that is just ONE of 6 grand juries (if my memory and math is correct) that is sitting at any given time.
But Bloomberg claims crime is still down. If true, that is good news, but I have wondered how true it is. So, it appears, does Marq Claxton, a retired NYPD detective and co-founder of the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care who is running for the City Council seat in the 31st Council District.
This comes from Marquez Claxton's website:
Recently, Mayor Bloomberg and his Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced that for the 18th straight year crime was down in the City. This overhyped announcement has become an annual end of the year ritual that has grown as old as it is misleading. This bold announcement is based on selective data and sleight of hand. The NYPD has skillfully classified seven crimes as “major.” It is the statistics and data of those crimes that they chose to publish. Lost in the glare of the spotlight of self-aggrandizement is the reality that most crime that is committed in this city is not among their chosen seven classifications.
In their announcement they tout, parade and present data on murder, rape, felony assault, robbery, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny - auto (car theft). The hundreds of other crime categories barely get referenced yet alone quantified. Consider that misdemeanor assaults, petit larcenies, criminal trespass, both criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal sale or criminal possession of marijuana, criminal possession of a weapon and the countless other crimes covered by the New York State Penal Laws are not even mentioned in the annual crime count charade. In many communities throughout this city these unmentioned crimes are very much what ails them. Why the Mayor and the NYPD would not quantify these and other crimes is a lesson in spin and public relations. Furthermore it would be most helpful if the final dispositions of all of the crimes reported were also reported annually so that a more comprehensive assessment of the current anti-crime strategies could be made. What analytical value does a report of a crime have if not put in context of arrest, summons, conviction, dismissal, etc. It is misleading, disingenuous and outright dangerous to offer a false sense of security to people who deserve the public safety service that they pay for. Another absurd reality of the NYPD crime data is that it is not independently audited for veracity. Ignored are the very serious allegations of manipulation made not only by police officers themselves but the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association as well. That’s right, even the union has asserted that there is a systemic manipulation of crime complaints throughout this city...Any police officer can tell you how often a legitimate grand larceny or burglary can turn into the overlooked petit larceny or how a felony assault ends up being a misdemeanor assault. Downgrading crime reports has become standard practice for the supervisors who ‘review’ each report. Absent external, independent auditing of the NYPD crime reporting system, we are forced to rely on the honor system...
The end of the year “crime is down … again” announcement is a three card Monty game. It is time that we ask to see all the cards. Until the NYPD becomes more transparent and comprehensive in their reporting we are best served trusting our reality as opposed to their misrepresentations.
Remember, this guy is a retired NYPD detective so presumably knows what he is talking about. And for those interested in Claxton's claims regarding the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association's accusations that Bloomberg is misleading people, here is a Village Voice article that supports his claim. And which uses hospital statistics (an independent measure of crime) to show Bloomberg is lying to the public.
Here is the key quote regarding hospital statistics:
The number of people who went to New York City hospitals because they were assaulted jumped sharply in four of the last five years for which figures are available—a direct contrast to the plunging number of assaults the NYPD reported.
These hospital visits are numbered in official statistics of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Injury Epidemiology—every bit as official as the heavily publicized police department data showing fewer and fewer serious assaults "known to the police" during the same years.
And the PBA statement:
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch had said that officers "are forced to falsify stats in order to maintain the appearance of a drastic reduction in crime," the Daily News reported. And Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins said his sergeants had witnessed assaults being downgraded to harassment cases.
Hospitals, the Patrolman's union, the Sergeants union, and retired detective Marq Claxton are all basically calling Bloomberg a liar regarding crime. And I can tell you the grand jury schedule is sure full. So it seems Bloomberg is not being honest with the city he wants a third term from.
We don't know the crime rate
The reason those seven -- and only those seven -- crimes are reported in the official statistics is that the FBI requires it, and because the federal government allocates a lot of funding based on those statistics.
There is little doubt that these are the seven most violent crimes, or at least a pretty good rendering of the most violent crimes. The problem isn't even, as Pat Lynch has been saying for years, that police are under enormous pressure to reduce the severity of the reported crimes in order to avoid having many violent crimes show up in the official statistics. The problem is with the obvious and predictable effect of focusing on those seven, and only those seven, crimes.
Try filing a noise complaint. Try complaining about litter, or vandalism, or graffiti, or an auto accident. Try getting a response.
In my precinct (the 108th in western Queens), there are probably no more than 150 officers. That's 150 people to cover a fairly large district, divided into several shifts (because there are 168 hours in a week), with some assigned to court cases, on vacation, out sick, doing paperwork, etc. As a consequence, there are often only a couple of squad cars -- or fewer -- available to answer calls.
Noise complaints usually take hours to get a response. So do auto accident reports. Neighbors of mine, not too long ago, reported an accident, and were forced to wait in their car (in the middle of winter, meaning "in the cold") for three house waiting for a cop to show up. People have complained about chronic problems with neighbors committing a variety of "minor" crimes, only to be frustrated by the lack of response.
The NYPD's "CompStat" program shows a phenomenal drop in crime, but that "show" may be -- indeed, one can make a good case that it is -- merely a mirage. The truth is that the vast majority of crimes that affect the vast majority of crime victims in this city do not show up in the statistics, and that those victims are doubly victimized by the skewed focus on a small number of crimes.
Who is to blame?
You could blame Mayor Bloomberg, or Police Commissioner Kelly, but I believe the real blame lies with the FBI. They require specific crime statistics, and publish them. The federal government also doles out anti-crime dollars based in large part on "progress" in this narrow area, so the natural reaction of local governments is to focus on that narrow area in order to receive more federal funding.
So I wouldn't blame Mayor Bloomberg for the failure of the NYPD to track, prevent, and deal with the vast majority of crimes in this city. Of course, his actions in this area prove that he is no more than an ordinary, hack politician...
Well
Politicians aren't supermen. So they should pay attention to those who may know better. If two police unions and hospital statistics are all saying there is a problem, you don't ignore it. Bloomberg not only ignored it but used statistics he was being told may be wrong or misleading and touting them as a success. At that point he becomes responsible for those statistics and whether they are accurate or not. We hold Bush accountable for ignoring warnings of terrorist attacks. Bloomberg ignores repeatedly warnings that the statistics he is using may be misleading and may lead to deeper problems.