Chicago's vanishing murders and assaults
I've written before about Chicago's declining violent crime rates. The Chicago Police and the Emanuel administration touted declining number of homicides as proof that Superintendent Garry McCarthy's controversial policing strategies were working and the city was becoming safer.
Clint Blowers/Chicago magazine
The Chicago magazine story which went up online earlier today cast significant doubt on CPD crime statistics, showing that the last few years saw CPD hire-ups reclassify homicides as non-homicides, stopped counting crimes commuted on interstate highways and otherwise manipulated statistics to make crime rates seem smaller than they actually are.
And that's not even the worst part. As the article explains, once the crimes get reclassified, their investigation becomes less of a priority, and murderers were allowed to walk free.
Chicago Sun-Times, which competes with Chicago Tribune (Chicago magazine's sister publication), added fuel to the fire, reporting that recent Chicago Inspector General report indicated that CPD misclassified nearly a quarter of all assaults, so they are labeled as less severe forms of assault (which drove down rates for some violent crimes). The report, Sun-Times notes, didn't real with the murder reclassification Chicago magazine reported on.
According to the Sun-Times article, that McCarthy has ordered the review of assault mis-classification late last year. So far, there hasn't been any response to homicide misclassifications outlined by Chicago magazine.
I get wanting to manipulate statistics to make oneself look good. If this was just about numbers, one might shrug it off, write it off as political spin. But this sort of thing goes beyond spin. Real people are being affected. Real murders are not being solved. Real people are being denied justice. And, because the murderers don't get caught, other people may be in danger.
Clint Blowers/Chicago magazine
The Chicago magazine story which went up online earlier today cast significant doubt on CPD crime statistics, showing that the last few years saw CPD hire-ups reclassify homicides as non-homicides, stopped counting crimes commuted on interstate highways and otherwise manipulated statistics to make crime rates seem smaller than they actually are.
And that's not even the worst part. As the article explains, once the crimes get reclassified, their investigation becomes less of a priority, and murderers were allowed to walk free.
Chicago Sun-Times, which competes with Chicago Tribune (Chicago magazine's sister publication), added fuel to the fire, reporting that recent Chicago Inspector General report indicated that CPD misclassified nearly a quarter of all assaults, so they are labeled as less severe forms of assault (which drove down rates for some violent crimes). The report, Sun-Times notes, didn't real with the murder reclassification Chicago magazine reported on.
According to the Sun-Times article, that McCarthy has ordered the review of assault mis-classification late last year. So far, there hasn't been any response to homicide misclassifications outlined by Chicago magazine.
I get wanting to manipulate statistics to make oneself look good. If this was just about numbers, one might shrug it off, write it off as political spin. But this sort of thing goes beyond spin. Real people are being affected. Real murders are not being solved. Real people are being denied justice. And, because the murderers don't get caught, other people may be in danger.