Police Department Needs To Go Further on Crime Statistics

NYPD needs to go further on crime statistics, say Noel Leader of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Disagreement on reality of crime reduction
The New York Daily News by Ben Chapman, Dan Beekman and Tina Moore - January 21, 2012

The NYPD memo telling rank-and-file cops to make filing criminal reports easier is just the start of preventing crime stat fudging, critics said Saturday. “The police commissioner and mayor can say crime is down if there’s no actual report on the crime,” said Noel Leader, a retired NYPD sergeant and co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement. In the memo from Commissioner Raymond Kelly reported in Saturday’s Daily News, Kelly spells out the steps cops should take when someone wants to report a crime. The missive tells cops to take reports even if the victim can’t identify the suspect or provide a stolen goods’ receipt. It also specifies that a report should be taken when victims refuse to speak with detectives or view photos — and even if they don’t want to prosecute. “It does seem like common sense,” Leader said. “You really shouldn’t have to encourage officers to do this.” Leader said often supervisors don’t want cops to take reports when a victim hasn’t seen the face of a perpetrator because it is unlikely the crime will get solved. NYPD officials denied that the memo was prompted by recent controversies and instead was a reminder of proper procedures. A 36-year-old nanny at the 75th Precinct in East New York on Saturday said she was turned away when trying to file a report about death threats from her brother-in-law. The woman, who wouldn’t give her name because she feared retribution, said her brother-in-law told neighbors last Sunday that he was going to stab her, but cops turned her away because the information was secondhand. “I think I should be able to make a report,” she said. “I’d feel safer. . . . They should make it easier.” Christopher Dunn, associate legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the memo shows that Kelly sees there is a “real problem.” Brooklyn City Councilman Jumaane Williams said he thinks Kelly’s memo shows that the NYPD needs to be looked at by an outside agency. Brooklyn Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries said New Yorkers deserve to know if crime reductions are “a mirage.” “There are many constituents who have complained to me that they have been refused an opportunity to file a criminal complaint,” he said. tmoore@nydailynews.com