TKC EXCLUSIVE!!! KANSAS CITY INSIDERS QUESTION KCPD CRIME REPORTING NUMBERS AMID NATIONAL CRIME SPIKE!!!

Once again there's a Kansas City controversy in the making given a strange anomaly in the local crime scene.

Check it:

KANSAS CITY INSIDERS ARE QUESTIONING LOCAL CRIME NUMBERS WHICH STRANGELY CONTRADICT NATIONAL TRENDS!!!

Recently, national news put crime in perspective during The Great Recession:

Violent crime jumps 18 percent in 2011, first rise in nearly 20 years

Now . . .

GIVEN THAT LOCAL STREETS SEEM JUST AS VIOLENT AS EVER . . . KANSAS CITY INSIDERS ARE RAISING QUESTIONS ABOUT LOCAL NUMBERS THAT DON'T REFLECT THIS CRIME INCREASE TREND SWEEPING THE NATION!!!

Check it:

Violent crimes rose in U.S. but not in KC

Now, the mainstream media explains that the discrepancy that is rather OBVIOUS can be blamed on unreported crimes - KCPD doesn't keep track of unreported crimes. Unfortunately, that explanation is not complete . . . At a recent meeting of the KC Latino Coalition, KCPD Chief Darryl Forté touted INCREASED calls and reports to the KCPD which, he said, signaled the success of new community policing efforts.

And so . . .

WE NEED TO REFERENCE THE WORK OF OUR DEARLY DEPARTED FRIEND TOM BOGDON WHO BRAVELY DOCUMENTED PREVIOUS KCPD REPORTING PROBLEMS!!!



Mr. Bogdon was a tireless Kansas City community journalist and it's only his work that reminds us of previous KCPD crime reporting errors.

Here's the money quote that gives credence to questions about room for error in KCPD crime numbers:

Kansas City Needs To Address Crime-Data Problems

"The Kansas City Police Department should be embarrassed by the incompetence of command officers in keeping track of the soaring crime rate, says editor Tom Bogdon of the Kansas City Tribune. Last year, a CQ Press listing of national crime rates put Kansas City 18th on the list of several hundred cities. It likely would have ranked even worse in the 2008 rankings because violent crime increased in 2007. Kansas City wasn’t ranked at all this year due to missing data. In other words, Kansas City failed to report."

Now . . .

Kansas City Insiders think that reporting tactics are questionable because of top down pressure. Here's a quote from one Kansas City Insider:

"The word is coming down from on high that improving crime numbers is the top priority and that's putting pressure on the rank & file. That pressure is unfair. There are a lot of ways to skew stats but what I think is most important is the pressure to improve stats from top levels that is relatively new."

While there hasn't been any official word on the STRANGE INCONGRUITY BETWEEN NATIONAL STATS AND KANSAS CITY NUMBERS it's important to note that generally the KCPD PERFORMS AN EXCEPTIONALLY EXCELLENT JOB SHARING INFORMATION VIA THEIR CRIME STATS PAGE.

Still, it's clear that there are relevant questions about the quality of that data that are backed up by recent local history.