It Never Crimes in Southern California…

…Or does it? Retired LAPD officer Clark Baker has raised doubts about Los Angeles's official crime rate, supposedly down for a fifth straight year, claiming the official rate is kept down by the simple expedient of police making great efforts to ensure that many official reports on crimes are not filed.

LAVoice.org reports the accusation, with links, some anecdotes, and an assertion that LAPD Chief William Bratton started this method of keeping crime stats low and him looking good during his New York days. The Village Voice has more on this method of "crime reduction" in the New York context, from 2005.

Link via Sean Bonner at the always fun and informative blogging.la, which has its own anecdotes to add to the case against LA crime reporting practices.