The Chicago Police Department may be scraping the bottom of the misleading statistics barrel.
During a year-end press conference last week, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy boasted that, while the number of people shot in Chicago rose by a double-digit percentage in 2014, the year will go down with the “second lowest shooting number on record.”
One detail that he omitted? The city has only kept track of shootings for four years.
“Asked Monday about claims police sometimes look for ways to make statistics appear more favorable, McCarthy responded, “Nonsense.” —NBCChicago
Lolz.
Let’s Hear It For New York
Meanwhile, an unofficial work slowdown by the New York City Police Department last week demonstrates nicely how crime goes “down” when fewer police reports are completed. (Like, by reducing the number of police officers working in our district by 25%.)
From the New York Post:
…overall arrests [were] down 66 percent for the week starting Dec. 22 compared with the same period in 2013, stats show.
Citations for traffic violations fell by 94 percent, from 10,069 to 587, during that time frame.
Summonses for low-level offenses like public drinking and urination also plunged 94 percent — from 4,831 to 300.
Even parking violations are way down, dropping by 92 percent, from 14,699 to 1,241.
Drug arrests by cops assigned to the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau — which are part of the overall number — dropped by 84 percent, from 382 to 63.
Betcha New Yorkers didn’t “perceive” how much safer they were that week.
