FOR THE RECORD

Police officials last week vehemently disputed critics who have charged that top brass has put pressure on officers to downgrade crimes.

The issue surfaced again after a New York University report found that the department stats are accurate and that its auditing system goes far beyond most traditional review processes.

But Paul Moses, a journalism Professor at Brooklyn College and former city editor at Newsday, has noted that an increasing number of people went to the hospital to be treated for assaults in four of the last five years for which figures were available, according to the Health Department. Nonetheless, the number of NYPD-reported felony assaults kept dropping, while misdemeanor assaults remained about the same, he observed.

Deputy Police Commissioner Michael Farrell said last week that comparing those two figures did not make sense.

Most assault victims are not hospitalized, and the majority decline a visit to the emergency room, he stated in an e-mail. "As a result, most assault incidents recorded by the NYPD won't appear in [Department of Health] statistics," he contended.

Mr. Farrell also noted that according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Victim Survey, nationwide only about half of all assaults are reported to the cops. "Therefore, some assault victims will be hospitalized while not having reported to the police," he said. "This has been particularly the case with those assaulted while engaged in criminal activity."

He also pointed out that domestic violence victims are typically reluctant to report to the police. "Similarly, the rate at which hospital patients reveal the cause of their injuries as assault may vary from year to year, independent of the actual rate of victimization," he continued.

According to Mr. Farrell, another reason the comparison is problematic is because individuals do not always seek care in a hospital in the same area that they were assaulted.

He also noted that from 1998 to 2002, hospitalizations and ER visits declined by 10.2 percent, while assaults declined 9.4 percent. "Even more compelling, if you compared 1993 to 2002 you would find that both hospitalizations and aggravated assaults declined by exactly the same 45.3 percent, he stated. Even with those figures, Mr. Moses, who has written several articles in the Village Voice concerning the issue, pointed out that in the early years of CompStat - which carefully monitors where crime is occurring - both hospital visits for attacks and the NYPD count for assaults decreased dramatically.

"But after a while, that started to change," he said.

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One of the more striking images at the celebration by Democrats of their sweep of last Tuesday's statewide elections was the dour expression on former Gov. Mario Cuomo's face during his son's victory speech.

It should have been a particularly happy time for the elder Cuomo. In addition to Andrew Cuomo's election as Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer was restoring the Governor's Mansion to Democratic control a dozen years after Mr. Cuomo relinquished it.

Yet the only time Mario Cuomo mustered a smile was when his son quoted the writer E.B. White in describing what it was like to be a New Yorker.

Maybe this most gifted of public speakers wasn't overwhelmed by Andrew's remarks, which contained more platitudes than eloquence. Or maybe it was just that the setting held unhappy memories, since it was on that same stage that he conceded to George Pataki back in 1994.

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Firefighters and Police Officers will duke it out in Brooklyn Nov. 17 in the annual Battle of the Badges charity boxing match.

Firefighter Mike Reno of Engine Co. 33 will take on Officer Russell Jung in the 152-pound open class. These two, both Golden Glove finalists, have met twice before in Battle of the Badge matches, each coming away with one victory.

The matches will take place at the Aviator Sports and Recreation Club located at Hangar Five in Floyd Bennett Field. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the first bout scheduled for 8 p.m. Tickets are available at www.ticketweb.com or by calling 866-468-7619. All proceeds go to widows and children funds run by firefighter and police unions.