NYT Discovers CompStat Scandal

If the Old Gray Lady is writing about it, how much longer until someone makes a connection to McGee8's role in instituting it in New York and his current effort to spread its statistical malfeasance nationwide?

• This week, the findings of an internal police investigation into his claims were reported in The Village Voice in an article by Graham Rayman, the latest installment in a series that has won awards for chronicling the case of Officer Schoolcraft and the corruption of police crime statistics. The investigation found “a concerted effort to deliberately underreport crime in the 81st Precinct.”

  The 85-page report, never released by the Police Department, vindicated Officer Schoolcraft, who has been suspended without pay for more than two years. He has filed a lawsuit, charging that he faced retaliation for telling the truth. Officer Schoolcraft recorded all the precinct roll calls for two years, and also recorded the raid on his home when he was brought to the psychiatric ward. One senior official confiscated his audio recorder during that encounter, but he had secreted a backup.

  The question of crime statistics is a matter of great sensitivity in the Police Department and at City Hall, which regularly boasts of New York’s safety. But more than 100 retired police commanders told researchers that intense pressure for annual crime reductions had led some officials to manipulate statistics. The department set up a panel in January 2011 to investigate the claims and report in three to six months, but authorities have said nothing of it or its work since then.

The CPD already has its own history of manipulating statistics - domestic related auto thefts, damage to property or theft from building instead of attempt burglary, aggravated batteries downgraded to simple batteries based solely on the damage, the list is extensive.

No one wants higher crime stats, but the cover-up of actual crime conditions isn't doing anyone any good.