Chicago Magazine Accuses Chicago Police of Cooking Lower Crime Stats

Inform: Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy claims that his department is “making progress” on defeating crime and points to lower crime rates as proof. But Chicago Magazine claims something more nefarious is lowering the crime rates. According to a Chicago Magazine report, murders and violent crimes are being reported in ways that hide them from accumulated statistics. For instance, a woman was murdered, but because the coroner couldn’t determine exactly what killed her, the Chicago police classified the death as a “noncriminal death.” In another example a man was found severely beaten. He died a few days after being taken to the hospital. Instead of classifying his death as a result of a criminal act, police classified the cause of his death as “diabetes.” Superintendent McCarthy called the article “patently false” and said, “I’m troubled by it because it hurts our credibility while we’re trying to build our credibility”.