Reply #29: Lies, damn lies and Tory crime statistics.

[Bob2bob]

Lies, damn lies and Tory crime statistics.

Shadow Home Secretary is accused of using figures 'likely to mislead the public'

By Andy McSmith
Friday, 5 February 2010

"Mr Grayling's office arranged for a press release to go out in every constituency in England and Wales, purporting to show that violent crime had risen sharply under Labour, as part of a campaign spearheaded by Mr Cameron about "broken Britain". But Mr Grayling had failed to take into account a more rigorous system for recording crime figures introduced by the Home Office in 2002. Instead of leaving it to the discretion of desk sergeants whether an incident should be recorded as a violent crime, police have been told they must always make a record of every complaint. As a result, official figures for violent crime leapt by more than a third in one year."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lies-damn-lies-and-tory-crime-statistics-1889927.html