* Cops who turned felony assaults into misdemeanor assaults if suspects couldn't be identified.
* A sergeant who recorded an iPod stolen during an assault as lost property. The same cop recategorized burglaries down to the level of criminal trespass.
This survey raises questions on the reliability and trustworthiness of all the compstat programs.
Some claim that compstat has direcly led to a decrease in crime. But some cities which use compstat have horrible crime rates, like Philadelphia, with a huge murder rate. The NY Times, in a 2007 article, reported,
"the results in cities that have adopted the Compstat model have been mixed: Philadelphia is "in the grip of a murder wave," Seattle's homicide decline "has flattened out," and the New Orleans police remains as ineffective as it was before Hurricane Katrina. The same dismal trend, he said, goes for Minneapolis, Louisville, Boston and Baltimore.Mr. Karmen said that it can be hard to evaluate Compstat for a key reason. If crime rates go down, its proponents credit the program. If crime doesn't go down, the program's proponents say the program's six core elements a clear mission, internal accountability, geographical organization of operational command, organizational flexibility, a reliance on data and innovative problem-solving tactics were not faithfully followed. Mr. Karmen said he did not rule out the latter explanation: "Implementing Compstat could be a matter of degree, and some departments just don't get it."
Yet, he said, "None of the other cities have experienced anything like New York's remarkable improvement in public safety." So either those other cities all failed to follow Compstat fully, or Compstat, he said, "is not the entire reason why crime went down."
The NY Post also added, " NYPD officials insist the pressure has never been an excuse to fudge the numbers and department spokesman Paul Browne rejected Arniotes' "rationalizing" saying: "Hundreds of captains do their job honestly, without resorting to dishonesty of any kind."
Commissioner Ray Kelly's administration has meted out punishment in 11 number-fudging cases, four of which involved commanding officers, said Browne, who also questioned the study's methodology."
We've seen how, in education, the "Leave No Child Behind" program has led to teaching policies that aim towards enabling children to score well on Leave No Child Behind program assessments rather than educating them for success as adults. This survey raises the concern that the compstat program may be putting our nation's cities at risk because of the percieved or real pressure to manipulate the reporting and characterization of crimes. Worse, the use of 24 hour imprisonment of arrested but not tried and convicted suspects appears to be a gross abuse of the justice system which creates a police state nightmare.
Giuliani encouraged George W. Bush to appoint his former police commissioner Bernard Kerik, now a convicted criminal, to be head of Homeland Security. And Giuliani, as a presidential candidate, promised to institute compstat on a national basis, presumably including the 24 hour arrest policy.
Compstat needs much greater scrutiny and review. It shows great potential to be abused in ways that endanger both the public and justice.
.
1 | 2
