Finest overhaul, statistically speaking

The NYPD is quietly wresting control of crime stats from local commanders — spending millions of dollars on a new program run out of Police Headquarters that officials say will bring CompStat-style crime analysis to the precinct level.

Authority over the department’s teams of crime analysts — who are stationed in all 77 precincts, 12 transit districts and nine housing-project “service areas” — is being shifted through the chain of command, making them answerable to Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea instead of relevant commanding officers.

Last year in the 40th Precinct in The Bronx, cops were caught cooking the books to make it look like crime there fell 14 percent during 2014, when the drop was actually 11.4 percent.

Shea insists that had no bearing on this move.

The new program, which was rolled out in Queens earlier this year, will completely revamp the way the precincts look at crime numbers, Shea said.

He called previous analysis efforts “a misnomer, because . . . there really wasn’t much analyzing of crime.”

Shea also called the plan “a win for the city” because one of the three cops assigned to each analysis team will be put back on the streets and replaced with a civilian “with a different skill set that we think is going to complement the sergeant and the cop” that remain.

Plans call for the hiring of 100 civilian statisticians with base $68,500 salaries.

Police sources familiar with the plan called it an election-year smokescreen that will allow high-ranking officials at One Police Plaza to completely control city crime numbers.

“Basically, Operations is able to override and dismiss any conflicting information they receive from commanders who are at least one level closer to the actual issue, in favor of the process they control from end to end,” a source said.