Misleading crime data made Oakland look safer than it is. The rest of California isn’t much better

[rangerrebew]

Misleading crime data made Oakland look safer than it is. The rest of California isn’t much better
The tech capital of the world should be capable of making rational policy decisions based on data — instead of vibes
By Chronicle Editorial Board,
Opinion Staff
July 13, 2024
 

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he was quadrupling state police officers’ shifts in Oakland and increasing surge operations there for the next four months to crack down on organized crime, sideshows, carjacking and other criminal activity.

“While we are encouraged by some positive trends, the lawlessness we’re seeing on the streets of Oakland is unacceptable,” the governor said in a statement. 
 
Newsom’s comments marked a rhetorical shift from last month, when, along with Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and other officials, he touted Oakland Police Department data that purportedly showed a 33% decline in crime compared to the same period last year. Many news outlets, including the Chronicle, reported the data. 

 https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/oakland-california-crime-data-19566021.php

[PeteS in CA]

As the Chronicle reported this week, Oakland’s police department has for years been publishing inaccurate and misleading crime data, leaving the public with the false impression that the city’s crime trends are better than they actually are.

At issue is the police department’s weekly crime report, which compares incomplete year-to-date figures — it can take up to six weeks to verify and account for nonviolent offenses such as property crime — with complete data from the same period the prior year. This inevitably produces the illusion that crime rates in Oakland are better than reality.

Oakland Police Chief Floyd Mitchell largely attributed the lag to outdated software. The department also has said that the weekly reports, which include a small disclaimer that data may be incomplete, are an attempt to provide as much real-time information as possible.

Yet such erroneous data only widens public distrust at a time when people feel they are being told not to believe their lying eyes over crime.

So soon-to-be-recalled (hopefully) Mayor Sheng Thao touts data she knows is significantly incomplete, and six weeks later, when that data is sort of complete, she touts the current week's data without updating what she touted 6 weeks earlier. That public distrust is justified by Mayor Sheng Thao's Crime Data Shell Game; and the local MSM have been her shill, by reporting lies they wanted to be true. That, years down the road, with Sheng Thao facing a recall vote and under Federal investigation (Hey guys! It's safe to tell the truth now!), the MSM have reported the truth (?) does not mitigate or excuse the MSM's agenda-driven lies.

[Smokin Joe]

And property crime in Denver dropped when weed was legalized (Because the police quit responding to all but the most serious property crimes, and no reports were filled out. No report? It never happened, statistically.)

I know people who left there soon after (about the time defecating in the street was decriminalized).

[Kamaji]

NYC has been doing the same thing for years.