1,000 Under-Reported Denver Crimes Investigated: Police Chief

DENVER, CO -- The Denver Police Dept. is auditing how crime incidents may have been under-reported and downgraded in 2017 after "anomalies" were discovered in year-end crime reports, the department said. Denver Police Chief Robert White announced Jan. 11 that inconsistent crime numbers had been discovered while the department's Data Analysis Unit was preparing their year-end report.

“One of the most crucial elements of our relationship with the community is trust," Chief White said in a statement. "Therefore, it is critical that we are transparent and accurate with the information we
maintain and report."

CBS4's Brian Maass reported that the audit has found around 1,000 errors were found in reports "going back several years" where serious crimes were downgraded to "letter to detective" status, which meant the incidents didn't show up in reports to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation or national crime statistics.

“They are not reported to the CBI as a crime stat,” Denver Deputy Police Chief Matt Murray told CBS4. The mischaracterized reports count for about 1 percent of the total crimes reported by Denver police.

CBS identified the districts filing downgraded reports as District One in northwest Denver and District Three in southeast Denver.

Denver police report crimes to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting database and the National Incident-Based Reporting System. The city's files have not been updated since November.

Maass and Denver Post reporter Noelle Phillips interviewed veteran Denver Police Lieutenant Jim Ponzi, who now teaches criminal justice at Regis College.

“If they can find a way to mischaracterize a crime into something not reported to the FBI, the crime never shows up,” Ponzi told the Post. “There are many purposes to doing this. The biggest is to downgrade serious crimes so both your police department and city look better to the public.”

Chief White's call for transparency may be a reaction to criticism from Denver Police Union brass for allegedly covering up a critical letter from former Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey. About half of the union's members participated in a "no confidence" vote aimed at the chief in October.

"After seeing the initial anomalies I was not comfortable with the integrityof the data, and I have ordered a thorough audit,” White announced. the department didn't say how long the audit would take or whether results would be made public.

Read the Denver Post coverage here.

Read CBS4's coverage here.

2017 Denver Police Crime Data Audit Announcement by JeanLotus on Scribd

Image Denver Police Chief Robert White via Denver DP Twitter