After more than 20 recent sensationalistic articles by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (this one generated 174 reader comments) accusing the agency of cooking the books, a PRI Management Group audit has cleared the Milwaukee PD of intentional wrongdoing. Unfortunately, the department in the meantime took a serious blow to its reputation and trust from the community. 

"Flynn fan".  That's what the newspaper recently referred to me as in one of their numerous slanted articles accusing the Milwaukee PD and Chief of Police Edward Flynn of falsifying crime stats. After I posted an article and sent out a couple of tweets (not knowing PRI would be contracted) critical of the news coverage and supportive of the manner in which the Chief responded to the allegations, the paper assumed I was biased, which of course couldn't be further from the truth.  Understand that there is a long history of bad blood between MPD and the newspaper in Milwaukee. 

WTMJ wrote, "The [audit] report also delivers a stinging blow to the journalistic jihad waged against the chief by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which has devoted thousands of words and slain whole forests in their attempt to suggest that Flynn has been fudging the crime numbers."

The Milwaukee Fire & Police Commission released a statement about our audit report saying, "This exhaustive report will serve as a basic template for every police department in the country that has experienced crime data errors."

The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission hired my business to do an audit of MPD crime stats several months ago after the allegations were made by the newspaper.  What I found was just what the department had asserted regarding the cause of the errors: problems with RMS, deficient training and human error.

Milwaukee's Tiburon RMS has got some serious issues.  Errors in the statute table, problematic system design and outdated technology were serious contributors to the erroneous stats.  This fact combined with incorrect classifications by both officers and records personnel led to thousands of incorrect assault classifications since 2006. 

The importance of the "Police Records Unit" in the news

Fox News 6 did 2 great stories on the audit, reporting that the "Records Unit needs to have the final authority when it comes to determining corrections that need to be made to reports".

CBS 58 mentioned how the crime stats became a "major political issue", which in fact they were.  The stats became political fodder in the 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial race since the Milwaukee Mayor was running for office.  

I have written a lot about crime stats and this case in Milwaukee is exactly why.  All too often UCR/NIBRS is misunderstood and the end result is always inaccurate data (and sometimes very serious allegations of cooking the books).  Don't let it happen to you and make the wise investment that will ensure your data is accurate and that you stay out of the headlines.

Effective January 2013, Includes All Victims and Omits Requirement of Physical Force.

 

The FBI approved revisions to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program's 80-year-old definition of rape. As approved, the UCR Program's definition of rape is "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."

 

In other words, the definition no longer includes just female victims. The victim can also be male. Currently, the rape definition change applies only to the SRS since the NIBRS already captures the broader sex offense information reflected in the new definition. However, the removal of the term "forcible" from all sex offenses in the UCR Program applies to both systems.

 

Now instances in which offenders sodomize victims of the same gender will be counted as rape for statistical purposes.

Once the FBI begins collecting data using the new definition of rape in January 2013, UCR Program officials expect that the number of reported rapes will rise.  

 

If your state has a UCR program, be sure to check with them about when and how this change will be implemented.  If you report directly to the FBI contact (304) 625-4830.