Lies, more lies, and the Baltimore Mayor's Damned Statistics - Day 7
An ongoing compilation of the coverage of O'Malley's use of false/misleading crime statistics.
"On a scale of one to 10 -- . . . 10 being the best -- how would you characterize the accuracy of the city's crime reporting since 2000? "Mayor Martin O'Malley replies: "I would say we're somewhere north of a 9.8."
February 17, 2006
The Sun once again acts as O'Malley's mouthpiece in an article by Doug Donovan, entitled "Mayor's camp fighting back." This article also focuses on the political back and forth, adding little substance to the story. (Gee, I wonder if they ever thought to try to interview some crime victims or officers on the street.) Apparently, O'Malley's campaign sent an email to his supporters linking Duncan with the Governor because he dared criticize O'Malley. Reminder- despite the Sun's attempt to politicize the issue, this story took life from a state National Victimization Study of 2004 as well as a reports from "several criminologists" who said that O'Malley's crime data was misleading (See February 11th recap). Notably, the Sun reports, O'Malley repeated his questioned claim of a "37.4 percent violent crime reduction between 1999 and 2004." This is the same claim that is based on statistics that "several criminologists" - not politicians - called worthless. It's like comparing apples with oranges and remarking that the apple is better because is has a better quality redness to it.
The Sun also authored an opinion piece on the subject. After recapping the story, the Sun opines: "What gets lost in the numbers debate is this fact: Crime statistics are only an indicator of the prevalence of crime. Federal surveys show that less than 50 percent of crime victims contact the police. But accuracy in crime reporting is essential to assessing public safety and Mr. O'Malley's role in it. In the absence of an independent, nonpartisan audit of city crime stats, the mayor will be defending his record and critics will be attacking it. At the very least, Mr. O'Malley should offer evidence that the data accurately reflect reported crime in Baltimore."
"On a scale of one to 10 -- . . . 10 being the best -- how would you characterize the accuracy of the city's crime reporting since 2000? "Mayor Martin O'Malley replies: "I would say we're somewhere north of a 9.8."
February 17, 2006
The Sun once again acts as O'Malley's mouthpiece in an article by Doug Donovan, entitled "Mayor's camp fighting back." This article also focuses on the political back and forth, adding little substance to the story. (Gee, I wonder if they ever thought to try to interview some crime victims or officers on the street.) Apparently, O'Malley's campaign sent an email to his supporters linking Duncan with the Governor because he dared criticize O'Malley. Reminder- despite the Sun's attempt to politicize the issue, this story took life from a state National Victimization Study of 2004 as well as a reports from "several criminologists" who said that O'Malley's crime data was misleading (See February 11th recap). Notably, the Sun reports, O'Malley repeated his questioned claim of a "37.4 percent violent crime reduction between 1999 and 2004." This is the same claim that is based on statistics that "several criminologists" - not politicians - called worthless. It's like comparing apples with oranges and remarking that the apple is better because is has a better quality redness to it.
The Sun also authored an opinion piece on the subject. After recapping the story, the Sun opines: "What gets lost in the numbers debate is this fact: Crime statistics are only an indicator of the prevalence of crime. Federal surveys show that less than 50 percent of crime victims contact the police. But accuracy in crime reporting is essential to assessing public safety and Mr. O'Malley's role in it. In the absence of an independent, nonpartisan audit of city crime stats, the mayor will be defending his record and critics will be attacking it. At the very least, Mr. O'Malley should offer evidence that the data accurately reflect reported crime in Baltimore."
posted by InsiderOut at 10:48 PM
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