Letters to the Editor
CompStat: NYPD Nos. Game

To the Editor:

Regarding the accuracy of NYPD crime stats (Nov. 10 article): Fudging the numbers of crime statistics is directly related to the police version of "smoke and mirrors" known by the cryptic denomination of CompStat (computerized statistics). CompStat is primarily a computerized version of the old crime "pin maps," which show the locations and patterns of criminal activity in a given area. Weekly crime reports are used to keep supervisors up to date on crime trends. Commanders go to monthly meetings and are subject to severe criticism, loss of command and even castration (metaphorically speaking) if they don't have good crime statistics and good answers.

While CompStat is a useful tool in fighting crime, it's probably the most overrated strategy in all of policing. While it may complement other strategies including pro-active policing, the emphasis on nailing career criminals, increasing the numbers of cops on the street, and other factors like the 1994 merger of the Transit and Housing Police with the NYPD, CompStat is more like a numbers game played on the side.

The narrow focus on good crime statistics is a morale-killer for creative and intelligent commanders, who want to experiment with new techniques to handle the special problems and needs of their precincts. More importantly, it leads some commanding officers and other supervisors to fudge crime reports in order to show success in every area of crime-reduction.

The obsession with crime statistics not only interferes with the accurate reporting of crimes but tends to allow the "empty suits" in the NYPD to get away with doing little or no work. Since police officers who take fewer crime reports help keep the numbers down, they get away with it.

For those active cops who take reports on all crimes and don't hesitate to make arrests, the fudging usually occurs when cops first bring a complaint report or an arrest into the stationhouse or command. Some supervisors insist on downgrading crimes to the lowest levels. They don't want to go to the next CompStat meeting and have to explain why robberies are up in their commands.

The numbers become so important, and the challenge for commanders at CompStat meetings so daunting, that in some commands the sharpest officers are working not to fight crime, but to work on crime stats and prepare their commanding officers for their next CompStat meeting. They know that at these meetings, crime stats and their responses to challenging questions about them will directly affect their careers in the NYPD.

CompStat shouldn't be abandoned, but it should be kept on a short leash so that the last month's crime statistics don't become the primary measure of good policing. By doing so, there will be less of a tendency to creatively fudge the crime numbers.

MICHAEL J. GORMAN

Editor's note: The writer is a retired NYPD Lieutenant and an attorney.