Politicians Applaud NYPD Statistics…Anyone Check Them?
Corey Johnson just became the NYC Council Speaker.
Speaker Johnson started his job by raving about the NYPD crime statistics on Twitter:
Johnson joined the Mayor in gushing over the statistics even when Johnson knows half of NY’ers don’t believe the statistics.
It’s easy to clap your hands and cheer on Twitter. Researching and checking into the statistics would have involved work. Being the NYC Speaker should mean that ALL statistics are checked before they are praised and presented to the public.
I live in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and something isn’t right here. I will put what we have seen up and maybe someone with more time and inside access will look into this.
1) A computer database called Compstat is used to record NYPD’s statistics. How did the Misd. Sex Crimes statistics for the 68th Precinct in Bay Ridge change from 2016 to 2017? See two charts below.
In 2016, there were 27 Misd Sex Crimes in the 68th Precinct.
By 2017, the number for 2016 now only shows 25 – it would have to show at least 27 (if not more).
In August 2017, we were told that the NYPD hired 100 people “to look at” stats and detect crime patterns. Where are all the reports from these new employees? yet they have hidden stats from the general public. Why weren’t 50 police officers hired so precincts could be adequately staffed, like in Bay Ridge?
2) As far as we can tell, besides the NYPD, we are the only people who have access to those two months of statistics above AS THEY HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE INTERNET.
The NYPD makes it look like they are transparent to the public. Yet, if you search for NYPD’s statistics online, you will find that the statistics for this cycle (or here for the 68th precinct only) and the first week in May 2017 exists online. The December 2017 statistics posted above have been scrubbed off the web. Why aren’t people allowed to see the PDFs for the prior months? And years? Why don’t precincts have the pdfs for the whole year up? If reports are are saved by precinct number, month and year, it would be easy to display them online. Since NYC uses Compstat – it should be easy to see statistics from two months ago or 6 months ago.
3) We saved the chart with statistics from December 2016 because it’s strange that stars *** were used, instead of a number in the percentage column to show the increase in murders. On the NYPD’s Compstat, there are never stars in the percentage column. See: Compstat
4) On September 15, 2017, an 18 year old woman stated she was raped by two NYPD Detectives from Brooklyn South. Although the detectives say the sex was consexual, they were demoted and have since quit the force. The papers explain that the officers brought the woman to Bay Ridge and switched places. DNA was found on the woman. Newsweek shared that the teen took to social media, but I couldn’t find a newspaper in Bay Ridge that mentioned this crime. Does that mean it wasn’t reported as a crime in Bay Ridge?
Why did the NYPD Detectives choose Bay Ridge? If you live here, you know the answer to this one. They know these are the only officers you will see here. When Mayor deBlasio saw that Bay Ridge was cited in this incident with the NYPD officers, deBlasio should have started neighborhood policing immediately to secure this neighborhood.
5) If the NYPDs objective is to beat their statistics from the prior month and lower statistics overall, answering residents calls is not a priority. The officers know that the more calls they answer, the higher their precinct’s statistics will be. Residents in Bay Ridge area complain that the police don’t always respond when they are called, the precinct line isn’t being answered or a reported 311 incident was closed without any assistance from an officer. In the past, the NYPD has said it’s short-staffed.
6) For years the Bay Ridge Community has been told that the 68th Precinct doesn’t have enough officers on staff. Why are other areas allowed to borrow our officers? How do we know this happens: Other precincts have thanked the 68th Precinct on Twitter for lending them officers and posted pics too.
7) There was a rise in complaints at the 68th Precinct from 2016 to 2017 stats (which isn’t outstanding or anything – people have complaints). Most months in 2017 have 4-7 complaints. Only 5 months were posted – 7 months are missing. In 2016 there was 1-4 complaints. This is what is interesting: On some months in 2016 the 68th precinct was left out of the report all together – like on page 6 of this one and this one. Does this mean the number was zero? Or did anyone notice that the 68th precinct is missing from the report?
The reason 50% of NY’ers don’t trust the statistics is we have seen the NYC government twist the numbers in their favor in other areas before. Don’t show NY statistics unless you can let NY’ers see all the statistics. It’s time for neighborhood policing to begin in areas that need it.
The NYPD changed the way they report statistics. It’s now done centrally so there is no reason an outside office can’t be given an account t on the Compstat system and download the statistics for the city each day, so statistics can have some value.
I been following crime statistics for awhile and I have made that known on this blog. I linked to the NYPDs statistics, but now I wish I had saved them.
In January 2017, I tweeted about rape being up in Bay Ridge (way up) after viewing the 68th Precinct’s report. If you don’t believe the statistic, request the NYPD’s report from that week.
In April 2017, I noted that there was 18 incidents of grand larceny in Bay Ridge compared to the year before when there was just THREE incidents.
In in November 2016, I tweeted about murder being up in my neighborhood.
In September 2016:
Hugs,
marlene
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