Some New York City crime victims struggle to persuade the police to write down what happened on an official report, says the New York Times. More than half a dozen police officers, detectives, and commanders cited departmental pressure to keep crime statistics low as one of the reasons. Police commissioner Raymond Kelly appointed a panel last January to study the crime-reporting system. The panel is expected to focus on the downgrading of crimes, in which officers improperly classify felonies as misdemeanors.
There also are crimes that officers simply failed to record, which one high-ranking police commander called “the newest evolution in this numbers game.” It is not unusual for detectives, who handle calls from victims inquiring about the status of their cases, to learn that no paperwork exists. Detective Louis Molina, president of the National Latino Officers Association, said that for some officers, the desire of supervisors to keep recorded crime levels low was “going to be on your mind,” and that it “can play a role in your decision making.” He added: “For police officers, it's gotten to the point of what's the most diplomatic way to discourage a crime report from being taken.”