Minimal impact on crime rate
By Allen Payton
In a letter to Pittsburg Police Chief Brian Addington, on Friday, July 15, 2016, Contra Costa District Attorney Mark Peterson informed him that of the 204 reports in 2015 listed by the Pittsburg Police Department as “suspicious circumstances” 103 should have been listed as crimes.
Following a request by Addington seeking an opinion by the District Attorney’s office, one deputy district attorney and one deputy sheriff performed an audit, reviewing each of the reports. They determined that 40 of those 103 reports should have been listed as Part I crimes and 63 as Part II crimes. Part I crimes include murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
Peterson’s letter states “Although the police reports listed the applicable crime, apparently your department did not the 103 incidents as crimes to the FBI.”
The reclassification of those crimes, will increase the total Part I crimes the Pittsburg Police Department will have to report to the FBI for 2015, changing the statistics to better reflect the true crime rate in the city.
The letter, however also states, “It should be noted that during the 2015 calendar year, the Pittsburg Police Department wrote 9,975 reports. Thus, the 103 police reports we have discussed are only 1% of all the police reports written that year.”
The result is an increase of 0.5% in reportable Part I crimes and 1% in Part II crimes.
Peterson concluded that “had the 103 Suspicious Circumstances cases been correctly classified as crimes reported to the FBI, there would have been minimal impact on city’s crime rate.”
To read the entire letter and audit, click here: Pittsburg PD 2015 Audit
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