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11/18/2004: Oops!
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Rosy Crime Figures In Error
The news from the St. Louis police this spring was cause to celebrate: Crime didn't just dip last year, it crashed through the floor to historic lows.Well, no doubt they all became cops because they weren't good at math....
Most of the city's news media covered the story. Robbery was down 18 percent from the year before. Assaults dropped 13 percent, robberies 18 percent. Even with car thefts soaring, the city's major crimes managed to retreat by 8 percent, the police said.
If it seemed too good to be true, it was. After the fanfare died down, police realized they had missed 5,760 crimes.
Crime wasn't really down. It was up about 4 percent. In fact, 2003 had the city's second-highest crime total in seven years, largely because of an astonishing car theft rate.
Len on 11.18.04 @ 05:21 PM CST
