The Los Angeles Times found that the Los Angeles Police Department regularly misclassified violent crimes as less serious offenses during a one year term ending September of 2013. Downgrading the seriousness of the crimes pumps up the department’s performance. The police are under pressure to reduce crime. (Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2014, by Ben Poston and Joel Rubin)
The Columbia Journalism Review praised the Times story as a laudable job of investigative journalism, “…the Times story is a prime reminder of how such analyses can play a key role in helping journalists play watchdog. By exposing flaws and showing skepticism in the police statistics, the story may cause police reforms, like making the data collection process less prone to mistakes.” (Columbia Journalism Review, August 14, 2014, by Tanveer Ali)