Over the weekend, two criminologists released findings from a study alleging that a number of retired NYPD officers and commanders witnessed or felt pressure to underreport crimes in order to appear as if crime was falling more dramatically than it was.
An allegation like this can be very damaging to a department like the NYPD that has worked hard for the last 20 years to turn crime around in their city, lowering crime rates, and ferreting out corruption in the police force. It can also leave members of the community disenfranchised, losing faith in a department that they had come to trust and rely on.
In defense of the NYPD, a NY Times article points out many flaws in the study and the criminologists’ methodology. And virtually everyone agrees that NYC is safer now than it was 5 and 10 years ago. But despite doubts as to the study’s veracity and findings, it’s hard to undo the PR damage done by a headline that reads “Former Commander Recalls Pressure to Alter Reports,” as well as the subsequent finger wagging by citizen bloggers and other news organizations.
But the effects of bad PR can be lessened by a gesture, on the part of any law enforcement agency, to let the public see what is really going on—let them in the door and show them that law enforcement officers are still working hard for them.
CrimeReports has found that sharing crime data publically breeds trust in local law enforcement and provides citizens with a way to keep themselves informed. When law enforcement shares data with the pubic, they are entrusting citizens with the power to participate in their own crime prevention efforts. Citizens feel like they are in control. And in return, the citizens give that trust back to the law enforcement agency.
When the media tells the public that crime is on the rise (or decline) citizens who have access to their law enforcement agency’s data through online crime mapping, can look for themselves. They can look at crime on their street and see that, “Yes, the NYPD is working for me. And they are keeping my block safe from crime.”
Opening up crime data to the public in a way that is easily accessible, relevant, free, and easy to use and understand, can help stem rumors and allegations of runaway crime rates. As CrimeReports expands its coverage across the US and Canada it is actively seeking to provide citizens with the type of official data that will inform citizens rather than scare them. Agencies from LA County to Portland to Baltimore, Boston, and Buffalo have seen the benefit of publishing near-realtime crime maps through CrimeReports.
For examples of the way that public-facing crime mapping is helping law enforcement across the country, see these articles:
Albuquerque, NM
Atlantic Beach, FL
Lake Havasu City, AZ
McMinnville, OR
James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.
Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com
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Great article. Getting crime information into more public hands, more readily, for more communities is the leading edge of a (re-)revolution in public policing that is badly needed. And while the cynics (or the self-interested) might use cases like NYPD’s trouble to try and cast doubt on the whole idea of public crime statistics, the answer to these hiccups is more transparency, not less.
This kind of situation, if it is true, is exactly the same kind of thing one sees every day in thousands of companies across North America and the world. Only here, it is crime stats and not profits. Eventually, the day will come when crime statistics are not only publicly reported, but also externally audited. The trophy will go to the ones who jump first and partner with companies like the Crime Map to engage the public.