FOR THE RECORD

Neither Mayor Bloomberg nor his predecessor would be the top choice of city residents should they both run for President, according to a Quinnipiac College poll conducted in the five days immediately after the Nov. 7 elections.

The survey of 1,314 city residents who are registered voters found that only 35 percent of them would vote for Mr. Bloomberg if he ran as an independent and only 33 percent believed he could win.

Somewhat paradoxically, however, 44 percent of those polled believed Mr. Bloomberg would make a "good" or "great" President. That left him far behind Hillary Clinton, about whom 67 percent felt that way, but three points ahead of Rudy Giuliani and 25 better than Governor Pataki.

The quality gap between Ms. Clinton and our former Mayor in the opinions of those surveyed prompted Quinnipiac University polling director Mickey Carroll to quip about Mr. Giuliani, "He may be America's Mayor, but he isn't New York City's President."

Somewhat more seriously, he said that while Mr. Bloomberg might be considered as doing well given that he is the only one of the four officials who is not yet considered a candidate for President, a failure to have at least half those surveyed believe he and Mr. Giuliani have the right stuff to run the country is "not good for him or for Rudy."

Only once has a New York City Mayor been elected to higher office - John T. Hoffman won the governorship in 1868 - leading Mr. Carroll to observe, "It's not what you'd call an upwardly mobile job."

It was at this time three years ago that Mr. Carroll - an ex-political reporter for the New York Times and Newsday - unveiled the puckish poll finding that Mr. Bloomberg had so fallen out of favor that fewer than 40 percent of the city's voters would be willing to have Thanksgiving dinner with him.

Is it possible, the Quinnipiac pollster was asked, that just as he overcame such sentiments to easily gain re-election, Mr. Bloomberg over the next two years could convince not only city residents but those in other parts of the country that he'd make a dandy President?

"I don't think it's impossible," Mr. Carroll replied. "I think it's highly unlikely, but if you took New York and Los Angeles and Massachusetts, and then spent a zillion dollars or so, it is at least conceivable."

Mr. Giuliani, he added, might do better nationally. "What you remember," he said, "is he didn't get along with reporters or with blacks and there were some things he didn't do so well, but out in the rest of America, what they remember about Rudy is 9/11."

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Peter Vallone Jr., the chair of the City Council's Public Safety Committee, said last week that he has no plans to investigate claims that the NYPD is downgrading its crime figures.

The matter surfaced again after a New York University report found that the department stats are precise and that its auditing system goes far beyond most conventional review procedures.

"In my experience, the police actually would err on the side of overcharging as opposed to under-charging, and it was the prosecutors that knocked them down," said Mr. Vallone, who served as an Assistant District Attorney with the Manhattan DA's Office for over six years.

Several police experts have said that times have changed, with the advent of CompStat placing additional pressure on top brass to continually reduce crime. "Now it's the complete opposite," one source said, referring to officers being ordered to downgrade crimes.

Mr. Vallone acknowledged that he hasn't worked as a prosecutor for a while. There will always be individuals who break the rules, he added. "But [Police Commissioner] Ray Kelly has instituted more accountability on the precinct level then has ever existed before. So I seriously doubt that could happen on a large-scale level."

During CompStat meetings, Mr. Vallone pointed out that precinct commanders are ordered to attend the review conferences on short notice. "And they will have to know every case in their precinct." He continued, "With this kind of oversight and accountability being implemented by the Police Department, I don't think we have to worry about large-scale crime reporting problems."