San Jose PD slammed for using fake stats
In the embattled city of San Jose, whose police department has grappled with massive layoffs, cuts in pay and benefits and a mayor who is leading the charge in California to destroy the pensions earned by hard working cops, firefighters and teachers, the agency stands accused of using fake data to show that gang crime has plummeted by over 40% compared to last year.
Earlier this month, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit ran an expose that the police department used new, stricter criteria to classify gang-related murders then compared those numbers to last year’s, which didn’t have that stricter definition. The numbers showed a dramatic, but false, drop in gang crime.
“I apologize,” said acting San Jose Police Chief Larry Esquivel, in a dramatic interview following accusations that false data had been used.
Watch a video of the mea culpa and read the full report.