Over the last several months the media narrative has been that crime rates are soaring, both locally and nationally. What’s let’s discussed is the data behind and supporting such statistics–or rather the lack of it. In this NPR interview transcript a data reporter for The Marshall Project talks about the FBI’s new and incomplete crime report and the consequences for the public. In an election year, where rhetoric around alarming reports of rising crimes abounds, accurate statistics are important. Some interesting tidbits from the interview:
- Los Angeles and New York City did not report data to the FBI, so no crime info from these large cities in reflected in the FBI crime statistics
- In fact, only 63% of the country’s police departments submitted anything, and some of the data that was submitted was incomplete.
- In some states like California and Florida, almost no agency in that state submitted any data to the FBI.