In the mid-1990s, the NYPD created a performance management strategy known as Compstat. It consisted of computerized data, crime analysis, and advanced crime mapping coupled with middle management accountability and crime strategy meetings with high-ranking decision makers. While initially credited with a dramatic reduction in crime, questions quickly arose as to the reliability of the data. The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation brings together the work of two criminologists?one a former NYPD captain?who present the first in-depth empirical analysis of this management system?exposing the truth about crime statistics manipulation in the NYPD and the repercussions suffered by crime victims and those who blew the whistle on this corrupt practice. Providing insider insight into a system shrouded in secrecy, this volume: Documents and analyzes a wide array of data that definitively demonstrates the range of manipulation reflected in official New York City crime statisticsExplores how the consequences of unreliable crime statistics ripple throughout police organizations, affecting police, citizens, and victimsDocuments the widening spell of police performance management throughout the worldReviews current NYPD leadership approaches and offers alternativesAnalyzes the synchronicity of the media’s and the NYPD’s responses to the authors’ findingsExplores the implications of various theoretical approaches to CompstatOffers a new approach based on organizational transparency Presenting a story of police reform gone astray, this book stunningly demonstrates how integrity succumbed to a short-term numbers game, casting a cloud on the department from which we can only hope it will emerge. For more information, check out the authors’ blog, Unveiling Compstat, at blogspot.com and their website. Eterno and Silverman’s work in this book was cited in the article The Truth About Chicago’s Crime Rates: Part 2 in the June 2014 issue of Chicago magazine. The …
