Alderman Wants Better Accuracy In Reporting Crime Stats
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 14, 2014 10:00PM
Alderman Bob Fioretti is calling for City Council hearings to discuss ways to improve the accuracy of crime statistics released to the public by the Chicago Police Department. The 2nd Ward alderman, who is believed to be considering a mayoral campaign next year, cited Chicago magazine’s two-part series this spring looking at how the Police Department classifies homicides and other major crimes and reports them as evidence they’re successfully doing their job.
"Chicago Magazine and the Inspector General's report gave out some alarming numbers in terms of downgrading the crime, and yes, we have less reporting on crime," Fioretti said. "We have certain crimes that are no longer listed as crimes here in this city. But we need to go into the functional crimes - those that are, that affect everybody, that everybody knows about and whether those are being played with in terms of the statistics."
The latest example of how CPD classifies its crimes is last week’s shooting death of Jasmine Curry. The pregnant mother of five will not be listed as Chicago’s 193rd recorded homicide in 2014 because her murder occurred on the Dan Ryan expressway—a state highway—even though the Ryan runs through and Curry’s murder happened within the city limits.
[ABC 7]