Lies, more lies, and the Baltimore Mayor's Damned Statistics - Day 21

An ongoing compilation of the coverage of Mayor 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."

March 3, 2006
The Washington Post's John Wagner summarizes the issue for its readers in an article that might as well be titled, 'What's good for the goose, is good for the gander.' Wagner starts off comparing Martin from eight years ago when he made headlines by accusing the city police commissioner of vastly overstating a decline in Baltimore's shootings, calling the numbers "a massive hoax," with the Martin of today who is receiving criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, accusing him of having cooked the books.
Wagner consults an expert - L. Douglas Ward, a retired Maryland State Police major and an administrator of Johns Hopkins University's public safety leadership program. He aptly states,
"'The bottom line right now is there are a lot more questions than answers,' Ward said. 'It's a very complicated mess.'"
The article mentions how the issue is becoming one of credibility for Martin and notes how his supporters are disappointed in his defensiveness. The article also mentions, in addition to the usual recap, former Commissoner's Clark's call for additional audits that "that might show 'substantial problems in the way that crime was counted in the city'" and the Mayor's response.
Again, TWP does not pick up on the misreporting of the homicide numbers first reported by WBAL-TV's Jayne Miller on February 14, 2006 and then followed up by WJZ TV on February 15, 2006.

Lies, more lies, and the Baltimore Mayor's Damned Statistics - Day 21

An ongoing compilation of the coverage of Mayor 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."

March 3, 2006
Not much on the issue today, but an interesting reference is a tangentially related article in the Baltimore Messenger by Brandon Dudley. The article talks about how Mount Washington is being proactive to keep crime down at a time they have experienced "sizable drops in burglaries and larcenies from vehicles in 2005, and only a slight increase in robberies and stolen cars." (Of course, this is based on Martin for Maryland's police statistics). Notably, Dudley writes "though crime is down, and Mt. Washington has a low crime rate in general, police are still concerned about the statistics. 'That's still a decent number of (crimes),' [Northern District Community Liasion Officer Doug] Gibson said. 'That's still a little problem up there.'"

Lies, more lies, and the Baltimore Mayor's Damned Statistics - Day 21

An ongoing compilation of the coverage of Mayor 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."

March 3, 2006
The Baltimore Sun reports on the bipartisan bill prohibiting police departments from knowingly providing false info re: crime reports. This time, reporter Andrew Green, actually writes that the bill stems from "the politically tinged debate over Baltimore police practices" without acknowledging any substance to the issue that WBAL-TV's Jayne Miller has found.
The paper includes quotes from lawmakers who say that this should be part of the audit package because audits are usually if police officers aren't providing the raw data.

Lies, more lies, and the Baltimore Mayor's Damned Statistics - Day 20

An ongoing compilation of the coverage of Mayor 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."

March 2, 2006
WJZ-TV reporter Adam May files a story about a bi-partisan bill introduced in the State Legislature to "prohibit police departments from knowingly providing false information about crime reports." This bill called the Accurate Crime Reporting Act apparently is intended to protect police officers from being pressured to skew arrest numbers. Of course, this bipartisan bill did not make mention in the Baltimore Sun with its emphasis on political squabbling.

Lies, more lies, and the Baltimore Mayor's Damned Statistics - Day 18

An ongoing compilation of the coverage of Mayor 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 28, 2006
The Baltimore Sun, as usual, reports on the issue framing it with respect to how O'Malley responds and painting it as an issue of mere politics w/o substance. First the newsworthy piece - The Baltimore City Council "approved the introduction of a resolution last night that would attempt to create a task force of academic experts to audit crime statistics."
Doug Donovan instead leads with "Mayor Martin O'Malley dismissed yesterday recent criticism of his crime-fighting record as part of a political smear campaign, comparing it to attacks leveled at Sen. John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election." Of course, the piece later acknowledges that the newsworthy aspect did not contain criticism of Martin for Maryland - "Most council members said they were certain that such a review . . . would erase doubts raised by O'Malley's critics." How a Baltimore City Council resolution is a political smear campaign is beyond me when most of the supporters figure it will actually help the Mayor.
Martin for Maryland also said that he wouldn't trust an FBI audit of the crime statistics because Bush has been President for six years (as if he actually cares about Baltimore). Of course, Martin states that his own internal audits not to be trusted and have not been influenced by politics.
For those that read the print edition, there's an online qualification (not sure what it means) - "City Council action on an audit of Baltimore's crime statistics was mischaracterized when this article was published in the print edition. The Sun regrets the error."

Lies, more lies, and the Baltimore Mayor's Damned Statistics - Day 17

An ongoing compilation of the coverage of Mayor 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 27, 2006
Baltimore Sun's editor David Nitkin responds to reader questions on this issue. Nitkin blatantly states that "there is no evidence the mayor has lied about crime statistics in Baltimore." What about the false homicide numbers for 2005?! The discrepancy between the Mayor's numbers and the State Medical Examiner's numbers that the Sun refuses to report about. You can make a mistake about homicides...people can count dead bodies...the police have not even come up with an "explanation" for the discrepancy. The only reasonable conclusion is a lie to help Martin for Maryland become governor.


WBAL TV's Jayne Miller continues her intrepid reporting on this issue leading with a story about a man who states that he was carjacked and flagged down a police officer while on the phone with 911 as the carjacker was driving away with his truck. Miller reports that the injured 57 year old retired grocery store clerk was taken to one police station only to be taken to another once police found the crime occurred in a different district. A Sergeant at the new district who just met the man then started interrogating him accusing him of soliciting a prostitute. The Sergeant then threatened to charge him with false statement and told him to leave or they would lock him up. The man left, no crime reported, the truck is not listed as stolen.
The police report about the incident said the man went to the district to report the crime, but kept giving differing versions of the event.
Miller also uncovered a 2004 police directive stating "The mere refusal of the victim to cooperate in an investigation or prosecution cannot be the sole basis to unfound an incident."
Perhaps more significantly, Miller reports about a similar incident the credibility of which is buttressed by a recent jury award of $1 million against the City. Miller reports that "In December 2004, the 70-year-old reported the theft of his van from his southwest Baltimore home" and the responding police officer locked him up for false statement to a police officer because he thought the man was lying.