A couple of weeks ago, I told you about a Scripps Howard News Service investigation that found more than half the murders in the United States every year are unsolved.
Now we know that’s not all of the bad news.
When the Scripps investigators published their findings, including an interactive chart that lets the reader drill down to the county level, it became clear that some police departments were telling the FBI that cases were closed when they clearly were not.
Scripps followed up with a story that said:
“Significant flaws in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report system were uncovered in a national reporting project by Scripps Howard News Service and 23 participating newspapers and television stations. Several local police agencies promised to reform their major crime reporting as a result of the ‘Murder Mysteries’ project.
“Police nationally reported solving 91 percent of all homicides in 1965 during the earliest days of the Uniform Crime Report. But the clearance rate dropped steadily over the years, dipping to just 64 percent in 2008.
“Many major police departments now report that they are clearing less than half of all homicides. But they are also making themselves look even worse than necessary by inaccurately reporting to state and federal authorities when they close homicides by arresting and charging people with the crimes.
“Independent criminologists warn that sloppy accounting of fatal crimes underscores a general failure by many police agencies to address a growing backlog of unsolved homicides.
” ‘This should be a central concern to the public,’ said University of Maryland criminologist Charles Wellford. ‘The fact that police leaders do not pay attention to clearance rates indicates they are not considering how well they are playing their central role in crime prevention.’ “
My previous column included an interview with Tom Hargrove, who oversaw the Scripps investigation.
Follow the story
- Compare what your city told the FBI with what you know to be true. Find out what cases are actually still “open” and unsolved in your city.
- Are unsolved homicides a growing problem in your community? What’s working/not working?
- Even if arrest rates are up, ask if conviction rates follow. How many of these cases are plea bargained to lesser charges?
