I know that some people are like, “so what else is new,” and they don’t believe this is a big deal since crime is, in fact, genuinely down.  But it is important, especially outside Manhattan, where the numbers are the most inaccurate.  Inaccurate numbers result in an inadequate response.

Another very important thing to look at are the figures for cleared cases.  Cases are cleared, or closed, when an arrest has been made.  If the person who was arrested is later cleared, the NYPD doesn’t go back and “unclear” the case.  The case may be re-opened depending on the amount of media attention, but just as often as not, it will remain closed or dormant.  So the numbers the NYPD provides for cleared or solved cases is also not entirely accurate.  (I should point out that I’m speaking about homicide cases here.  That is the crime I researched.  What I say might be true for all crime cases investigated by the NYPD, but I can’t say that with authority.)

Perhaps what is also not a surprise is that pressure from without and within mixed with poor judgment and the culture of the NYPD created such a situation.  But CompStat is an enormously useful tool and these are fixable problems.  Bottom line, this is a good thing.  While I can just imagine what’s going on behind the scenes at the NYPD right now, this attention is good and will lead to improvement. There’s a lot of people doing a great job, and accurate information can only help them do even better.

Anyone following this subject is probably well aware of these articles, but here are links to some of the recent articles about the veracity of the CompStat numbers.

From The New York Times:

Retired Officers Raise Questions on Crime Data

Former Commander Recalls Pressure to Alter Reports

Forget Police Data; New Yorkers Rely on Own Eyes

From The Daily News:

Brooklyn’s 81st Precinct probed by NYPD for fudging stats

Report of fudged crime stats from Brooklyn’s 81st Precinct deserves hearing, Councilman Vallone says

Leonard Levitt’s comments on NYPD Confidential.Com are well worth reading.

(The picture above was taken at the Property Clerk Warehouse, and those barrels contain crime scene evidence.)

“The story line of murder in New York is one that has been undergoing constant revision since 1963, when the Police Department began tracking homicides in a way that officials now deem reliable. (Before then, homicides were not counted until they were solved.)”

There are many reasons why the NYPD numbers are inaccurate, but I don’t believe that this is one of them.  While I was researching my book I read every single NYPD Annual Report from 1908 on.  (If my memory is correct, I didn’t read them all because some of the earlier reports were missing.  I was able to also read a sample of the pre-1900 ones however, which were still available, and all of this was at the city library at 31 Chambers Street.)

The wording has changed over the years, decades and centuries, but in those reports the NYPD listed not just the solved cases, but the total number of homicides, indicating which were cleared and which weren’t.  Here is a sample from 1949.

Right or wrong, these are not just the solved cases, but the total number of homicides as the NYPD chose to present them.  The cleared case figures were ones that turned out to be the least reliable.

Tracing the complex history of reasons for inaccurate homicide and clearance totals would be an important research project for someone.  There are so many things to consider, and it’s too much for one post alone.  I started looking into it and learned a lot. But it would be a fairly major undertaking and I personally wanted to move on from studying law enforcement.  I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned to a reputable group, or a perhaps a class at John Jay.

Putting aside the whys, it is not necessary to depend on the NYPD for homicide totals.  The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the office which classifies a death a homicide, keeps their own records and totals.

(However some of their historical totals will have problems, too.  In the past, the ME classified some possible homicides as CUPPIs (Circumstances Undetermined Pending Police Investigation).  They did this because they needed more information before declaring them homicides.  They rarely classify deaths as CUPPIs now.  They’re better at determining the cause and manner of death.  But it does mean that those CUPPI deaths are in limbo.)

For some of the earlier years there’s “Population, Births, Notifiable Diseases, and Deaths, Assembled for New York City, NY 1866-1936 from Official Record,” compiled by Haven Emerson, MD, and published by Columbia University.  Emerson got his figures from the Department of Health.

There are probably a lot of other sources, but I was focusing on why a murder case goes cold and how it is sometimes solved later and I found what I needed for that.  But the fact remains that there are many more unsolved murders than those which are on the books.

Here is the beginning of the article that got me started.  It is from The New York Times.

New York on Track for Fewest Homicides on Record

By AL BAKER — Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 ‘The New York Times’

There were days upon days in New York City when not a single person was murdered in 2009. Two such stretches, in February and March, lasted nearly a week each.

There were some pockets of the city where homicide was a singular occurrence: 12 of the city’s 77 police precincts, in locations as varied as Hamilton Heights, in Upper Manhattan, and Park Slope, Brooklyn, had logged one each through Sunday.

The story line of murder in New York is one that has been undergoing constant revision since 1963, when the Police Department began tracking homicides in a way that officials now deem reliable. (Before then, homicides were not counted until they were solved.) There have been rises — the number peaked at 2,245 in 1990 — and subsequent falls. But there have never been as few homicides as this year.

As I learned researching my book, people invariably talk. The police certainly know this and visit prisons to talk to inmates.  But they can’t go all the time and talk to every one.

This deck was developed by Doug and Mary Lyall, whose daughter Suzanne went missing in 1998 when she was 19 years old.  The deck comes with instructions about how the inmate can provide tips.  The inmate is not required to identify themselves, although they may be eligible for a reward if they do.

According to the Lyalls:

“The New York State Tip Center has received a total of 130 tips from 5/10/08-11/19/09. Of this number a total of 53 are considered viable leads.  Cold case homicides in Texas, California and Florida, have been solved as a result of information received and other convictions are imminent.”

I went through the entire deck.  Some are so poignant, like this one for Carlos Diaz, who went missing when he went to bury his beloved dog.  There are only a couple of cards of children. “Pictures of children are known to be a commodity for predators,” the Lyall’s fact sheet explains.  But I like that there is a mix of age, sex and race in their deck. Missing children tend to get the most attention, understandably, but every case is important.

There are plans to distribute the cards “to the non-prison population, including: high crime urban areas, probation/parole offices, homeless shelters and truck stops. In the future it is anticipated that inmates in city jails and prisons throughout NYS will be targeted.”

These decks, and many more like them, should be everywhere.  As the Lyalls say, “the cards may be just enough to jog a memory, or a conscience, for those who hear things.”

For more information about these cards visit The Center for Hope.

“IAFP is pleased to announce the launch of our journal, the Forensic Digest. The Digest is dedicated to contributing to the body of already existing forensic knowledge through the publication of wide and varied articles of general and specific interest to our readership. We are committed to publishing a journal that is reflective of the many disciplines, roles and functions of those who represent forensic practice. The Forensic Digest welcomes all first time writers as well as published authors. We are pleased to provide a forum for learning and reflection in order to further advances in forensics.”

If you grew up thinking going to the library was a chore, that’s probably because you didn’t have things like Proquest. Proquest is a database of newspapers.

If you’re in New York, go to the New York Public Library’s website to see which branches have access to Proquest. Outside New York contact your local library and ask if they have it. If not, you’ll have to search through microfiche, which takes longer, but it’s still a great resource.

Here’s how Proquest works. Let’s say you’re researching a murder that happened in the subway in 1967.  With Proquest, you can narrow the search to that year, and then tell it to search on “homicide” and “subway”. Any articles that were written about murders in the subways that year will come back.  If you just have the murder victim’s name and nothing else, just type in the person’s name. You can narrow the search down later if too much comes back. If you’re researching a murder in your building but you don’t have the year, just type in the address of your building and see what comes back. I was researching my own building once, and all these articles came back about things that happened in my building over the past 100 years, crimes, interesting people who lived here, etc.

There are actually lots of other amazing databases and resources out there, but this is a good place to start.  If you don’t have access to Proquest—and Proquest doesn’t have all the newspapers in the country digitized yet, although they seem to be working towards that—good old microfiche is still a dependable, valuable resource.

If you need help with Proquest ask a librarian.  This is their thing, finding information.  They are information detectives!  So not only can they help you with Proquest, they will suggest other things to try.  Befriend your local librarian.

I got that picture of the main branch of the New York Public Library from the library itself.  They have a growing collection of digitized images that is fun to explore. When I typed in my street name I found pictures of my block spanning a century.

For the past few years I’ve been maintaining a list of cold case squads around the country. If you don’t see your squad or related organization on this list, please email me the contact information for your squad or organization so I can add you to my list. Thank you!

This not only helps the friends and families of murder victims but other squads around the country and the world who need to contact you.  (The picture is of the grave of one of the murder victims I wrote about, Jean Sanseverino.)

Here’s something disturbing. When I first started researching my book I made a list of all the detectives and commanding officers in the NYPD’s Cold Case Squad. The disturbing fact is at the end of the list.

Cold Case Staff

Commanding Officer: Deputy Inspector Vito Spano
Executive Officer: Lt. Robert McHugh

Manhattan

Lt. Antonio Collazo.
Det. Dominic Andreno
Det. Stefano Braccini
Det. Dexter Honora
Det. Sylvia Bone
Det. Robert Santiago
Det. Wendell Stradford

Brooklyn

Sgt. Dennis Bootle
Det. Carl “Chuck” Harrison
Det. Brian O’Toole
Det. Daniel D’Alessandro
Det. James Dudziec
Det. Toni Vanzetta
Angelo Cioffi, retired, kinda.

Queens

Lt. Phillip Panzarella
Det. Steven Kaplan
Det. Oscar Hernandez
Det. Michael Solomeno
Det. Tommy Wray
Det. Pat Dolan
Det. Kevin Cashen
Det. Mike Carrano

Bronx

Sgt. Robert Galvin
Det. Steven Berger
Det. Margaret Fisher
Det. Kevin Lauler
Det. Michael Navarez
Det. Mark Tebbins
Det. Pablo Moss

The last I heard there are only 12 people left in the squad. (And they started out with around 50.)

From his paper: “Since 1989, the 50-year-old investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., has unearthed documents, cajoled suspects and witnesses, and quietly pursued evidence in the nation’s notorious killings from the civil rights era.

“His work so far has helped put four Klansmen behind bars: Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers; Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, for ordering the fatal firebombing of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer in 1966; Bobby Cherry, for the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four girls; and Edgar Ray Killen, for helping organize the June 21, 1964, killings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Schwerner (popularized by the movie, Mississippi Burning, about that case).” Full article here.

Good work, Jerry Mitchell.  According to the New York Times, Mitchell said he would use the money to help write a book on the subject.  I can’t wait!

“BlogTalkRadio is the social radio network that allows users to connect quickly and directly with their audience. Using an ordinary telephone and computer hosts can create free, live, call-in talk shows with unlimited participants that are automatically archived and made available as podcasts. No software download is required. Listeners can subscribe to shows via RSS into iTunes and other feed readers. Our network has produced hundreds of thousands of episodes since it launched in August of 2006.”

Author and former law enforcement professional Dennis N. Griffin has a blog talk radio show called Seeking Justice which focuses on true crime and cold cases. On September 22, at 9pm, for instance, he is going to focus on the Ricky Dyer case. To participate, go here.  Ricky’s mother Josie Dyer and his sister Rose will be participating.

I just did a quick search to see if there are other shows like this and found Justice Interrupted, hosted by prosecutor and author Robin Sax, police officer and author Stacy Dittrich, and advocate and author Susan Murphy-Milano.

And When Justice Fails, hosted by author Jerry C. Berry.

Great use of the tools of the service and the internet.