More proof that police books are cooked

From the NY Post:

A city police captain was forced to retire last year after he fudged crime statistics to make his precinct look safer -- adding to widening concern over the accuracy of NYPD stats and the belief that top bosses pressure supervisors into cooking the books.

Capt. James Arniotes, a 23-year veteran, told The Post that he was busted for reclassifying 23 grand-larceny felonies as petit-larceny misdemeanors in early 2008.

The misconduct occurred while Arniotes, 48, was second in command at the Ninth Precinct in the East Village.

Grand larceny is one of seven major crimes, along with murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary and grand larceny auto, that the NYPD and FBI track and publicize.

Through CompStat -- which was started in 1995 and is credited with helping to take crime levels to an all-time low -- data are broken down by precinct and used as a tool to focus cops on crime trends.

But a growing chorus of complaints -- including those from Post interviews with dozens of officers and a new survey of retired captains -- allege that the pressure of CompStat leads precinct bosses to downgrade major crimes to minor offenses.

And here's another tactic: Report the crimes. But not when they actually happen.

The NY Times has an interview with another book cooker.

People generally agree that the city is safer than it was 30 years ago, however, some are complaining about the responses (or lack of responses) they have received from the NYPD.