Cases that may prove a point
POLICE BRASS are investigating claims by a veteran captain who alleges that some NYPD commanders are misclassifying felonies to hold down crime statistics in a bid to further their careers.
Capt. Marash Vucinaj has gathered 156 cases over the past two years from multiple commands that he contends show a pattern of downgrading some felony-level crimes to misdemeanors. The crimes include thefts and attempted thefts, assaults and assaults on cops. He does not claim the manipulation extends to murders and rapes.
The purpose, he said, is to shift crimes out of the all-important index crime category — made up of murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft. Among the methods he claims he has seen: l Classifying incidents where cops are injured by suspects as resisting arrest, rather than assault. l Classifying grand larcenies as lost property and ignoring details that suggest a crime took place. l Classifying incidents where someone purposefully shot at someone but missed as “investigate shots fired,” reckless endangerment or criminal mischief. l Classifying incidents where a would-be thief slipped his hand into someone’s pocket or bag as misdemeanor “jostling” rather than attempted grand larceny. l Compressing several crimes with separate victims into one complaint report. l Failing to record crimes in the city handled by other law enforcement agencies.
Vucinaj said he found the cases while working as a captain in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx — including Transit Borough Brooklyn and Patrol Borough Queens South, both of which encompass multiple precincts.
“It’s not isolated in one command, but it’s also not everyone,” Vucinaj told the Daily News. downgrading of crime. “I take
Vucinaj declined to provide his serious offense at these allegations backup documentation for his that crime reports aren’t taken claims because he said it would right because cops shed their violate department rules, but he blood for these crime reports,” said did supply complaint numbers and Dermot Shea, the chief of crime summaries. The News could not independently control strategies. verify his allegations. “It goes against everything
His evidence is anecdotal and we’re trying to do to deploy our could not be quantified against the resources. We need those crime overarching statistics. reports to deploy appropriately.”
The NYPD’s official stats Assistant Chief Matthew Pontillo through Dec. 24 show a more than of the Risk Management Bureau 5% drop in major crime this year said the error rate involving crime compared to the same period last reports is just 2% annually out of year, with decreases across all 700,000 total reports, based on a seven categories, including a more sample of 75,000 reports. than 4% drop in felony assaults Pontillo said the NYPD has developed and a 3% drop in grand larcenies. an exhaustive and “aggressive”
High-ranking police officials system for reviewing the sharply disputed Vucinaj’s accuracy of crime reports, which claims of any widespread involves investigating complaints,