TROUBLE WITH CLASSIFYING CRIMES (Crime Statistics PART 8)

SHOTS FIRED. SHOTS HIT. THEN WHAT?
Someone probably known to you shoots 20 rounds of bullets in to your house while you and some other people are inside. You’re hit in the lower back, sending you to the hospital. Police fill out a report that this was:
A) Attempted Murder
B) Assault with a Deadly Weapon
C) Aggravated Assault
If you live in Charlotte, NC and follow conventions instituted to lower the reported crime rate, you might get a police report that says “C,” “Aggravated Assault.”
But the correct answer is not “C.” FBI National UCR (Uniform Crime Reporting) rules require a different answer.
When this exact scenario took place on Jan. 18th, 2011, but see the police report below:

Not attempted murder, not assault with a deadly weapon, … police stated they believe the shooter knows the victims. The assumption there is they had intent to hit them with the bullets, not “assault them” with the bullets.
This is just one example of how reports are downgraded in Charlotte. If Ms. Gettys hadn’t gone to the hospital with injuries, she very likely would have received a report that said “Damage to Property,” a common occurrence for bullets into siding, as well as doors and windows that have been broken open. Those bullets into siding should be ADW charges and the doors and windows should be Breaking & Entering Charges.


STOLEN CARS OR “UNAUTHORIZED USE OF MOTOR VEHICLES?”
Has anyone ever dialed “911” and said, “Help! My vehicle is being used in an unauthorized way!” The number is probably pretty low. But the charges of Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle are pretty high. A random sampling done by Cedarposts in this article

CMPD Auto Theft Numbers - Cedar Posts has been looking at arrest reports for the month of October (2010). Funny thing are the numbers of "Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle" charges vs "Larceny of a Motor Vehicle" charges. This sampling which is hardly scientific came up with 29 Unauthorized and 2 Larceny charges. The UUMV is of course a misdemeanor and is not reported as part of the crime stats.
Dumbing down the crime numbers? I'm not sure but it seems there are an awful lot of people "borrowing" their neighbor's cars without permission.
He showed a handful of records in his post, which you can see and pointed out that one of those people had been arrested previously for this unauthorized “borrowing”:
Cedar Bonus: Out of Cedar’s list, he pointed out that Jeff King was arrested for the same offense back in June and included a link to the prior arrest record.

But, Citynewswatch bonus, Baron Johnson from Cedarpost’s list had also been arrested before for UUMV, in addition to at least nine other arrests in the last three years alone for charges of:
Misdemeanor iv-d non-support of child
Misdemeanor unauthorized use of motor vehicle
Felony c/s-sch ii- possess cocaine
Misdemeanor communicating threats
Felony c/s-sch ii- possess cocaine
Misdemeanor assault on a female - non.agg.phys.force
Misdemeanor false imprisonment
Misdemeanor dv protective order violation
Traffic driving while license revoked
Traffic driving while license revoked
Misdemeanor resisting public officer
Misdemeanor resisting public officer
Misdemeanor probation violation
Misdemeanor communicating threats
Misdemeanor dv protective order violation
Misdemeanor probation violation
Misdemeanor communicating threats
Misdemeanor dv protective order violation
Misdemeanor unauthorized use of motor vehicle
Traffic Driving while license revoked
Misdemeanor resisting public officer
Misdemeanor resisting public officer
Driving while license revoked
Iv-d non-support of child
Iv-d non-support of child
Iv-d non-support of child
Felony carrying concealed weapon - gun (f)
Misdemeanor resisting public officer
Misdemeanor drug paraphernalia - possession of
Traffic driving while license revoked
Misdemeanor probation violation

It was easy for Cedar to miss because of a strange name spelling. I’m sure the multiple “unauthorized uses of motorized vehicle” by this citizen (who is presumed innocent of any charges with unknown disposition—as are all alleged mentioned in this post) was probably just another crazy mix-up, not a larceny of vehicle.


Citynewswatch found even more examples:
Quintin Zane Fraylon has been arrested numerous times in the past three years on these charges:
Felony probation violation
Misdemeanor assault on a female - agg.phys.force
Misdemeanor communicating threats
Traffic no operator's license
Traffic fict/alt title/reg card/tag
Misdemeanor assault on a female - non.agg.phys.force
Misdemeanor interfere emergency communication
Misdemeanor injury to personal property
Misdemeanor injury to personal property
Misdemeanor assault on a female - agg.phys.force
Felony probation violation
Misdemeanor assault on a female - non.agg.phys.force
Misdemeanor interfere emergency communication
Misdemeanor injury to personal property
Misdemeanor resisting public officer
Misdemeanor c/s-sch vi- possess marijuana - misdemeanor
Misdemeanor assault on a female - non.agg.phys.force
Misdemeanor larceny (misdemeanor) - $50-199
Traffic driving while license revoked
Misdemeanor false imprisonment ( ?)
Misdemeanor unauthorized use of motor vehicle
Traffic no operator's license
Traffic fict/alt/cncl/rev reg. Card/tag
Misdemeanor assault on a female - non.agg.phys.force
Misdemeanor c/s-sch vi- possess marijuana - misdemeanor

Is the combination of “false imprisonment” and “unauthorized use motor vehicle” the misdemeanor way to write up kidnapping and larceny of a motor vehicle? Maybe, maybe not. Until this city follows the Public Records Law so we can see the records involved, there’s no way to reconcile what Rodney Monroe is doing with the real crime reports.

Generio D Morgan has been arrested for UUMV and also for using a fictional or altered tag/revoked/canceled tag on the vehicle… this seems unlikely to be a mixup, but again, maybe there should be more review.
Misdemeanor unauthorized use of motor vehicle
Misdemeanor assault or simple assault and battery - non-agg.phys.
Misdemeanor assault on a female - non.agg.phys.force
Misdemeanor assault on a female - non.agg.phys.force
Traffic driving while license revoked
Traffic fict/alt/cncl/rev reg. Card/tag

Walter Whitman Twitty has been arrested on the following charges in the last three years:
Misdemeanor trespass - second degree - notified not to enter
Misdemeanor unlawful concealment (misdemeanor) - under $50
Misdemeanor larceny (misdemeanor) - $200 & up
Misdemeanor unlawful concealment (misdemeanor) - $50-$199
Misdemeanor unlawful concealment (misdemeanor) - under $50
Misdemeanor trespass - second degree - notified not to enter
Misdemeanor unlawful concealment (misdemeanor) - under $50
Misdemeanor larceny (misdemeanor) - $200 & up
Misdemeanor unauthorized use of motor vehicle
Misdemeanor larceny (misdemeanor) - under $50
Misdemeanor larceny (misdemeanor) - $50-199
Misdemeanor larceny (misdemeanor) - $50-199
Misdemeanor trespass - second degree - notified not to enter
Misdemeanor trespass - second degree - notified not to enter
Misdemeanor trespass - second degree - notified not to enter
Misdemeanor larceny (misdemeanor) - $50-199
Misdemeanor larceny (misdemeanor) - $50-199
Misdemeanor unauthorized use of motor vehicle
Misdemeanor unauthorized use of motor vehicle

There were many, many more “mixups about authorization over who was allowed to drive the car” since Cedarposts found 29 UUMV’s in the month of October, 2010 alone. And several people with repeat misunderstanding problems, but none charged with felonies that would reflect on Charlotte’s CRIME RATE.

And of course if you get your car back, that’s often written up as a “damage to property” report at most—if you really make a fuss. If you get your car back, you might get talked out of a report at all. Too much trouble, really. Hours of reports. Deductibles to be paid. You don’t want your insurance rates to go up, do you? This call can be written off with a Miscellaneous Incident, which disappears from the system in short order, and then it’s almost like there never was a crime at all.

What’s the big deal? UUMV is a misdemeanor charge. It’s a Type II Crime that doesn’t impact Charlotte’s Crime Rate, as reported to the FBI. Neither does Damage to property. 

Stolen cars fall into Type I crimes.

Assault with a Deadly Weapon is a Type I crime.

Damage to Property is a Type II crime.

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH “DISCHARGE OF A FIREARM IN THE CITY?”
Discharge of a Firearm in the City is a misdemeanor charge, often used when someone fires a gun at someone else instead of a more appropriate violent crime charge that would make the Crime Rate in Charlotte appear closer to the truth. You might ask if this was “simply” a celebratory firing of a gun (just as deadly when the bullet hits). But the answer is “no.” Charges reviewed are often made in conjunction with simple assault charges—misdemeanor, of course. Proper charges of Aggravated Assault or higher would move into the category of TYPE I Violent Crimes and make everybody look bad. It seems like any assault that involves firing a gun ought to be considered violent and aggravated, but if a DA would write in a clarify, that would be great.

MUTIPLE VICTIMS WRITTEN ON ONE REPORT
Then there are mini-storage units like the Budget Self storage at 2527 Little Rock Road in April, 2011 that was hit by thieves. According to this report, Inside Self Storage.com references a WBTV report “the perpetrator damaged a fence to enter the back of the secure lot, and then broke into seven self-storage units and six vehicles. Approximately $1,500 in damage was caused to the facility and the vehicles.” It’s not clear if the vehicles were store inside rented storage units because both this report and the one to follow say the location type is “outdoors” even though it refers to electronic equipment, clothes and fur that were stolen, but here’s the report.
It was written as one crime report with nine victims.

The Morningstar Storage at 11020 N. Hwy 29 in the University Area was hit at the end of August, producing this report with five victims, then again a few days later with three more victims:

The Budget Self Storage had at least one report in November with two victims, including some guns stolen from 4730 North Tryon Street:

HOTEL/MOTEL RULE FOR UCR REPORTS EXPLAINED

If you add all those examples up, that comes to 19 victims knocked out with 4 crime reports. We have no idea if CMPD has corrected this with the FBI statistics, but it’s a little-kept secret among officers that they are instructed to combine victims on reports—even when it’s not permitted per UCR rules—in order to keep down the Crime Stats. Sometimes, it’s “caught and corrected” at the end of the year, but that’s not generally made public.

There is something called the “hotel/motel” rule in the UCR (Uniform Crime Report) manual which allows multiple offenses to be combined into one report in a situation of transient occupants, such as in a hotel or motel. This does NOT apply for rented space such as an apartment or a rented storage unit, which MUST BE COUNTED AS SEPARATE OFFENSES.

The theory of allowing multiple offenses on one report with multiple victims using the “hotel/motel” rule is that the victims are transient and so the location (hotel/motel or comparable) is the main descriptor or the crime. However, in Charlotte, officers say they are encouraged and/or instructed to combine multiple offenses onto one report, thus instantly lowering the appearance of the crime rate in multiples even though the crime is just as high as it had been.

On February 9, 2009, Chief Rodney Monroe stood before City Council and told Mayor McCrory, Councilman Anthony Foxx, and the rest of Council he and his staff were not doing anything different in the way they had been reporting crime that was artificially lowering the reported crime statistics. Officers pressured to do differently say otherwise.
 

If Chief Monroe would stop obscuring the Calls for Service, the Crime Reports, and the other relevant data many have been asking for, it would be easy enough to verify if things are being done correctly. If things are being done correctly, there would be no need to keep anything hidden; in fact, it would be a source of pride.

Kerr Putney recently made statements with other crime statistic releases that the commercial larceny statistics had shown an increase because of break-ins at mini-storage facilities. They are supposed to be written accounted for as one crime per victim—one per unique, rented space that had a breaking and entering TYPE I crime that would add to the Crime Statistics. However, if you include multiple victims on one report, it seems there is less crime than there is.

PRESSURE ON OFFICERS TO DOWNGRADE OR NOT REPORT CRIMES
Officers are reporting they are under pressure to keep reported crime numbers down by nearly any means. The pressure comes from supervisors gunning for promotions or simply trying not to be targeted for demotions or transfers that are effectively demotions. The pressure comes all the way from the top.

One benefit of going through the stress and expense of a lawsuit when things are not operating as they should be is that it allows and requires personnel to be interviewed, deposed and testify under oath. Sgt. Tammy Hatley won her ruling against Rodney Monroe’s practices within the department, finding that she was not afforded due process in personnel matters.

With settlement talks in Tammy Hatley’s case and the more recent EEOC investigation and interviews underway in a separate case the CMPD would rather the public didn’t know about, issues of fair treatment, non-discrimination, and more are being investigated, giving a voice to a wide swath of sworn officers who have been waiting for a safe way to speak up about a number of issues about the running of the CMPD.

This opportunity for people to give statements about the way Chief Monroe is running the Police Department should not be taken lightly. Those that have been afraid because their jobs are on the line should be encouraged to speak up. If calling in an outside, impartial investigator is necessary, then it should be done.

Before this, speaking up truth to power could amount to career suicide. Maybe these cases and exposure of some other mishandling of issues will be the start of turning around some very bad policies.

After all, City Manager Curt Walton and HR Manager Cheryl Brown have both professed their refusal to investigate various personnel irregularities involving the police department. So far, Charlotte’s City Council and Mayor Foxx have permitted this to continue.


NO ACCOUNTABILITY OR TRANSPARENCY

Monroe refuses to release the data.

Here’s another way to state that: Monroe hides the reports that would prove to a statistical conclusion whether he is telling the truth or not.

If you read the last post you’ll see the importance to the Crime Rate even if you just have an impact on moving a percentage of larcenies off the books, such as using the previously ultra-secret SHOP project CMPD employs to handle shoplifting larcenies other than the normal crime reporting route.

Have you had a smashed window on a car that resulted in theft of something from your car? Chances are high it was reported as damage to property, not a larceny from auto. Check your report.

Aggravated assault? Chances are it was reported as a simple assault (misdemeanor) instead. Or it may be written up as harassment. Charlotte’s harassment numbers are up.
Miscellaneous Incidents are used to clear reports from the system. Sometimes this is appropriate, but not at the levels reported off record. The fact that CMPD including the CMPD Attorneys and Chief Monroe, as well as his Public Affairs Office refuse to release the number of Miscellaneous Incidents that are used is a cause for concern.

Are officers talking victims out of reports or failing to look for witnesses in some cases?
Some reports are duplicated. Some were unnecessary calls to check on something suspicious. There are other legitimate reasons. But the denial of public records lead to some troubling options for conclusions about abuse.

No one should encourage people to write off crime completely and use “MI” or “Miscellaneous Incident” as a classification to clear the reports, because that doesn’t conform to the legally required reasons for “exceptional clearances” which are spelled out by the FBI as:

In the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, law enforcement agencies can clear, or “close,” offenses in one of two ways: by arrest or by exceptional means. Although agencies may administratively close a case, that does not necessarily mean that the agency can clear the offense for UCR purposes. To clear an offense within the UCR Program’s guidelines, the reporting agency must adhere to certain criteria, which are outlined in the following text. (Note: The UCR Program does not distinguish between offenses cleared by arrest and those cleared by exceptional means in collecting or publishing data via the traditional Summary Reporting System.)

Cleared by arrest

In the UCR Program, a law enforcement agency reports that an offense is cleared by arrest, or solved for crime reporting purposes, when three specific conditions have been met. The three conditions are that at least one person has been:

• Arrested.
• Charged with the commission of the offense.
• Turned over to the court for prosecution (whether following arrest, court summons, or police notice).

In its clearance calculations, the UCR Program counts the number of offenses that are cleared, not the number of persons arrested. The arrest of one person may clear several crimes, and the arrest of many persons may clear only one offense. In addition, some clearances that an agency records in a particular calendar year, such as 2009, may pertain to offenses that occurred in previous years.

Cleared by exceptional means

In certain situations, elements beyond law enforcement’s control prevent the agency from arresting and formally charging the offender. When this occurs, the agency can clear the offense exceptionally. Law enforcement agencies must meet the following four conditions in order to clear an offense by exceptional means. The agency must have:

• Identified the offender.
• Gathered enough evidence to support an arrest, make a charge, and turn over the offender to the court for prosecution.
• Identified the offender’s exact location so that the suspect could be taken into custody immediately.
• Encountered a circumstance outside the control of law enforcement that prohibits the agency from arresting, charging, and prosecuting the offender.

Examples of exceptional clearances include, but are not limited to, the death of the offender (e.g., suicide or justifiably killed by police or citizen); the victim’s refusal to cooperate with the prosecution after the offender has been identified; or the denial of extradition because the offender committed a crime in another jurisdiction and is being prosecuted for that offense. In the UCR Program, the recovery of property alone does not clear an offense.

Clearances involving only persons under 18 years of age are handled separately.

Neither of these FBI UCR options allow for clearing by “miscellaneous incident,” but it’s done all the time.  How many times?  The CMPD refuses to answer that question since at least midway through last year.  The MI numbers fall off the system after a short amount of time, so they become nearly untraceable.

This seems to be the way the Charlotte front-pagers want to keep it, and they’re holding their collective breath that there aren’t more and more revelations of bad contracts and police lawsuits to come—and evidence about those things that would cause them trouble since they won’t clean up their own house.

Multiple sources have said that one Captain has manipulated her Division’s statistics more dramatically than others and outside reviews have begun.  CMPD has certainly forced the hand of the public to request the DOJ, the FBI, and the EEOC to investigate certain activities and statistics, as well as contracts that the CMPD wants to keep hidden. 

Maybe Monroe didn’t understand the rules: He didn’t pass his test to become a sworn officer until more than a year after becoming Charlotte’s Chief of Police.

Here are previous posts on Crime Reporting by citynewswatch:

 
Crime Reporting Questions and Jealous Reporters? (Part 1)
 
Significant Events in Crime Reporting (Part 2)
 
CMPD Says Web Site "Under Construction" (Part 3)
 
Prostitution Sting in Charlotte, Crime Reporting (Part 4)
 
Why Every Citizen Should Care About Correct Crime Statistics (Part 5)
 
Comp Stat, Investigations, Crime Reporting (Part 6) 

SHOP for Better Crime Statistics (Part 7)