Saturday, January 8, 2011

Probing whether crime complaints are downgraded

From the Daily News:

A panel of former federal prosecutors will soon begin combing through NYPD crime stats to figure out if cops are cooking the books.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who has long defended the department's CompStat program, made the announcement Wednesday.

"The integrity of our crime-reporting system is of the utmost importance to the department," Kelly said.

Several officers have accused supervisors of downgrading crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. In the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Officer Adrian Schoolcraft claimed bosses refused to take crime reports from some victims.

The Crime Reporting Review Panel, which could start its work as early as next week, includes David Kelley, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District.

Kelley said he has been promised full access with the power to interview cops at precinct stationhouses. And he'll be able to attend the CompStat meetings where police commanders are grilled about how they're dealing with crime.

A second member, Robert Morvillo, said it's "incumbent upon us - if there is a serious problem - to try to come up with a solution to the problem." The other member, Sharon McCarthy, wouldn't comment.


There are questions about how this will work.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Several summers ago, my neighbor had a naked man on her front porch, standing on a chair- pressing him self against her screen window. She called 911 - the cops wouldnt even get out of the car or take a report. My boss is a former NYPD Sgt. and he says Compstat is BS. Its a useless reporting system, used to tame the politicians and their consituents.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHxvg9tgqQ

Claire said...

Where's my probe?

Anonymous said...

Cops won't get out of their squad car. Great!

At some point the precinct commander will appear before your community group. Usually this is a make nice session. It is time to directly confront them on this bullshit!