News

Are police too concerned with performance targets?

Wednesday, 20 November 2013

MPs were yesterday given the low down on what nodding, cuffing, skewing and stitching is in the manipulation of police crime stats. They were told how crime figures have been routinely re categorised, downgraded or even ignored in order to meet performance targets.   

These manipulations have gone as far as police discouraging victims of rape from formally reporting incidents.

You can watch the full evidence session to the Public Administration Committee here and read the transcript here.

The Guardian and Telegraph reports are here.

For more on crime statistics, Richard Garside reviews recent trends in this post.