OUR MOST RECENT COMMENTS

OUR MOST RECENT COMMENTS

Our Janury 24th Op Ed in Daily News


New York Crime Statistics Published in New York Times December 3, 2010

To the Editor:

As the authors of the academic survey referred to in “As Police Point to a Dip in Crime, Murders and Robberies Are Up” (news article, Nov. 26), we applaud the article’s attempt to bring crime statistics to the forefront. Our published peer-reviewed journal articles clearly demonstrate the manipulation of crime statistics by New York Police Department.

Audiotapes made by Police Department officers document police instructions to downgrade major crimes to the lesser charge of misdemeanor crimes (which are not part of the public crime count), for the purpose of lowering official crime statistics.

According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York City’s misdemeanor crimes skyrocketed from 1996 to 2001 — further evidence of pushing major crimes into the misdemeanor crime category. This revelation confirms our research as well as the Police Department’s failure to report these misdemeanor crimes since 2002, the first year of Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly’s return to office.

On top of this, hospital admissions data for assaults show a trend completely at variance with the Police Department’s public data. They indicate that firearms assaults more than doubled from 1999 to 2005.

Your article says, “Without a substantial decrease in grand larcenies this year, however, the city would show an increase in overall crime.” Since grand larcenies are among the easiest crimes to downgrade to a misdemeanor, this suggests further confirmation of manipulation by the Police Department.

One way to conclusively resolve this issue is for the Police Department to allow scrutiny from outside agencies. The time is ripe for Police Department transparency.

John A. Eterno
Eli B. Silverman
Rockville Centre, N.Y., Nov. 26, 2010



NYPD SPONSORED PANEL TO EXAMINE CRIME STATISTICS

Jim Hoffer ABC News Investigations

Baker and Rashbaum of New York Times

Another News Report

Graham Rayman Village Voice

Colleen Long Associated Press



Links to Recent Confirmation of Our Findings and Media Appearances

Graham Rayman article with comments by us on release of data by NYPD

Paul Moses on abrupt change and release of data by NYPD

Eli Silverman on WBAI, Monday, December 20, 2010

Eli B. Silverman and Graham Rayman on CityTalk (CUNY TV)

The Numbers Game in the The Uptowner

Further confirmation of our findings

Lack of Transparency Continues

City Violent Crime Spikes in The Wall Street Journal

Lenny Levitt's most recent column