Greg O’Connor: Crime Stats are being manipulated

The outgoing Police Association president Greg O'Connor says "of course" statistics showing a drop in crime have been manipulated.

Speaking to TVOne's Q+A show this morning, Mr O'Connor said the statistics were set up to reflect "bulk crime", ignoring the "small numbers".

"Well, it’s ‘lies, damn lies, and statistics’, " he told interviewer Michael Parkin. "If you look at the crime stats, which is those recorded stats, you’ll say the government and police administration are right.

"If you look at the stats around calls for service – they’re the phone calls that police receive in communication centres etc – and just an example, family violence, domestic disputes, up by 10 per cent a year, pretty much, and across the board 20 per cent increase. So it’s the calls for service, to the extent that the communication centres couldn’t manage last summer."

Mr O'Connor also said inaccurate statistics were skewing the conversation about whether police should be armed or not - specifically the Police Commissioner saying guns were involved only in only 1.3 per cent of violent crime. "[W]e’re confused, bemused a little bit by this. We’ve just started keeping our own stats since the 1st of September about just how many armed incidents we’re involved in. And we’re up to now well over 60," he said. "[Y]ou are getting a lot more people shot at. You’re seeing the number of incidents that people are involved in, the number of people we’re having to shoot, the number of people taking pot-shots at us, these are things that you’re seeing."

Here’s the link to the full interview: http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/police-association-president-steps-down-video-6406405

ENDS

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