LAPD records reveal flaws in crime reporting

By Ben Poston

The Los Angeles Po­lice De­part­ment has mis­clas­si­fied ser­i­ous vi­ol­ent crimes as minor of­fenses, a Times ana­lys­is of crime data shows. These doc­u­ments in­clude ex­amples of mis­clas­si­fied cases and in­tern­al audits con­duc­ted from 2005 to 2012.

In Feb­ru­ary 2013, LAPD of­ficers ar­res­ted Nath­an Hunter after he at­tacked his wife, stabbing her in the face with a screw­driver and throw­ing her down a flight of stairs. Be­cause Hunter used a weapon and caused ser­i­ous in­jur­ies, the in­cid­ent should have been re­por­ted as an ag­grav­ated as­sault, ac­cord­ing to FBI rules. However, the LAPD clas­si­fied this case as a simple as­sault, a minor crime that does not get coun­ted ...

While he slept, James Simpson’s girl­friend al­legedly poured boil­ing wa­ter on him, badly burn­ing his face and back. The case should have been clas­si­fied as an ag­grav­ated as­sault, ac­cord­ing to FBI re­port­ing rules and crime-cod­ing ex­perts. However, the LAPD grouped it in a catch-all cat­egory of “oth­er mis­cel­laneous crime,” which is not in­cluded in the city’s ser­i­ous vi­ol­ent crime stat­ist­ics. LAPD of­fi­cials de­clined to com­ment on this case. Simpson agreed ...

Nagi El­hadary al­legedly at­tacked his preg­nant girl­friend, stabbing her with a pair of scis­sors. The case should have been clas­si­fied as an ag­grav­ated as­sault, ac­cord­ing to FBI re­port­ing rules and crime-cod­ing ex­perts. The LAPD re­por­ted it as a simple as­sault; such crimes are not in­cluded in the city’s ser­i­ous vi­ol­ent crime stat­ist­ics.

In Feb­ru­ary 2013, sus­pects forced entry in­to a home and gar­age, steal­ing $1,400 worth of ap­pli­ances from the gar­age. Po­lice ini­tially re­por­ted the case as a burg­lary. Later, an LAPD de­tect­ive down­graded it to van­dal­ism, a minor crime that does not get coun­ted in the city’s ser­i­ous prop­erty crime stat­ist­ics. LAPD of­fi­cials de­clined to com­ment on this case.

This 2005 audit found 11% of minor as­saults re­viewed should have been clas­si­fied as ser­i­ous as­saults. The num­ber of ser­i­ous as­saults in the city dur­ing the six-month peri­od covered by the audit would have been more than 10% high­er than what was re­por­ted by the LAPD, tak­ing in­to ac­count ser­i­ous as­saults that should have been re­por­ted as minor ones. The de­part­ment did not pub­licly re­lease the find­ings of this audit ...

This 2009 LAPD audit found that 10% of the as­saults re­viewed were mis­clas­si­fied as minor in­cid­ents. At that er­ror rate, the total num­ber of ser­i­ous as­saults in the city dur­ing the six-month peri­od covered by the audit would have been 32% high­er than what was re­por­ted by the LAPD. The de­part­ment did not pub­licly re­lease the find­ings of this audit un­til 2011.

This 2010 LAPD audit found that 3% of in­cid­ents re­viewed were mis­clas­si­fied as minor crimes. This audit does not in­clude in­form­a­tion needed to cal­cu­late the pre­cise im­pact the er­ror rate would have had on the de­part­ment’s of­fi­cial crime totals. The de­part­ment did not pub­licly re­lease the find­ings of this audit un­til 2011.

This 2011 LAPD audit found that 6% of the as­sault cases ex­amined were mis­clas­si­fied as minor as­saults. Even a re­l­at­ively small er­ror rate such as the one found in this audit would sig­ni­fic­antly in­crease the crime totals re­por­ted by the de­part­ment. The audit does not in­clude in­form­a­tion needed to cal­cu­late the pre­cise im­pact this er­ror rate would have had on the de­part­ment’s of­fi­cial crime totals.

This LAPD audit, pub­lished in Oc­to­ber 2011, looked at cases of rape, rob­bery, ag­grav­ated as­sault and simple as­sault and found one case out of 106 that was mis­clas­si­fied in a one-month peri­od in May 2011. That case should have been clas­si­fied as a simple as­sault, but was “overre­por­ted” as an ag­grav­ated as­sault. It is un­clear how many cases of each crime type were sampled, so it is dif­fi­cult to draw ...

This 2012 LAPD audit found that 3% of the cases ex­amined had been mis­clas­si­fied as minor as­saults dur­ing a one-month peri­od. If those in­cid­ents had been in­cluded, the de­part­ment’s tally of ag­grav­ated as­saults that month would have been about 10% high­er.