City Audit Finds Minor Discrepencies in Crime Stats, Says DPD Needs Computers

This morning, Frank Librio at City Hall sent two audits released this morning by Craig Kinton -- one of which dives into whether or not the Dallas Police Department is properly counting crime stats per federal Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines. You can read the 29-page doc for yourself after the jump, but it would appear that, yes, the auditor does indeed have some issues -- most of which have to do with DPD's need for better computers, which are on the shopping list already.

After giving the DPD a gentle pat on the back for making "a good faith effort to comply" with the UCR guidelines -- which, the auditor acknowledges, are open to interpretation -- he goes on to note that "there are opportunities for DPD to improve UCR compliance and crime reporting." The auditor found, after a random sampling of reports, that there were 11 "forcible rapes" not included among the 499 reported by the department in '08. Eight aggravated assaults and one robbery also weren't counted -- a percentage of a percentage point of a change in the final tally.

But the biggest thing is: DPD needs new computers. Like, yesterday. Which the city council acknowledged in January, when it authorized spending $7.4 million on new records management system for DPD, the courts and Dallas Fire-Rescue. What -- the LINC ain't good enough for ya?

Dallas Police Department Crime Stat Audit