South Minneapolis crime -1 (Cleveland: neighborhood, tax, cost)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Girl made up rape story to explain her pregnancy, Mpls. police conclude | StarTribune.com (http://www.startribune.com/local/100314159.html?elr=KArksCiUnP:E8c7PiUiD3aPc:_Y yc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr - broken link)

This kinda makes me wonder how often this type of thing is reported falsely often and how it could potentially skew crime numbers, especially in areas that have had a reputation as being hotbeds for crime.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by Slig

Girl made up rape story to explain her pregnancy, Mpls. police conclude | StarTribune.com (http://www.startribune.com/local/100314159.html?elr=KArksCiUnP:E8c7PiUiD3aPc:_Y yc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr - broken link)

This kinda makes me wonder how often this type of thing is reported falsely often and how it could potentially skew crime numbers, especially in areas that have had a reputation as being hotbeds for crime.

I don't know the likelihood of this having a dramatic impact on #s, although it certainly could have a big impact esp. with fairly uncommon high profile crimes like rape...however, conventional wisdom says that rapes/sexual assaults are often underreported as the victim is likely to know the attacker.

I do think/know that folks should leave a fair amount of room for error with the city's crime stats. The problems of the "shot-spotter" have been well documented/reported/debated throughout the years (wish they would do away with these maps as the system is so unreliable), and just this year I noticed that for a few weeks the 4th precinct was accidentally double-counting the crime totals of Webber-Camden as part of my neighborhood's crime totals (so they were showing up in W.C., and all of W.C.'s totals were showing up in our crime totals in addition to our actual weekly stats...whoops, our bad!)- it sounded like they were going to go back and correct the error from previous weeks' crime stats, and I assume they did as I'm sure the PD would prefer not to have falsely inflated crime stats, but either way- it was a good example that the likelihood for human error/ misrepresentation of crimes is probably pretty substantial whether in cases like the above, erroneous data entry, or flawed systems like the shot spotter.

[northside4life]

In the Cleveland neighborhood, there were no crimes reported last week. At all..

[srsmn]

Originally Posted by Slig

Girl made up rape story to explain her pregnancy, Mpls. police conclude | StarTribune.com (http://www.startribune.com/local/100314159.html?elr=KArksCiUnP:E8c7PiUiD3aPc:_Y yc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr - broken link)

This kinda makes me wonder how often this type of thing is reported falsely often and how it could potentially skew crime numbers, especially in areas that have had a reputation as being hotbeds for crime.

-1 and +1: falsified police report. And apparently she is getting off scot-free for this? C'mon....I know we're talking about a teenager, but that's a little ridiculous. This wasted public resources and very well could've ended badly for some law-abiding, red-bearded citizen with a scar on his cheek...

personal opinion: Another example of cops wasting our tax dollars and doing nothing when they get called on it....

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by srsmn

-1 and +1: falsified police report. And apparently she is getting off scot-free for this? C'mon....I know we're talking about a teenager, but that's a little ridiculous. This wasted public resources and very well could've ended badly for some law-abiding, red-bearded citizen with a scar on his cheek...

personal opinion: Another example of cops wasting our tax dollars and doing nothing when they get called on it....

Dude, she's a 15 year old girl. What on earth could you expect the police to get out of her to make up for the wasted public resources? We know she doesn't have any money. Besides, if the police decided to press charges it would only result in additional wasted public resources. Declining to press charges was probably the greatest cost-saving measure they could've been done.

[srsmn]

Originally Posted by Slig

Dude, she's a 15 year old girl. What on earth could you expect the police to get out of her to make up for the wasted public resources? We know she doesn't have any money. Besides, if the police decided to press charges it would only result in additional wasted public resources. Declining to press charges was probably the greatest cost-saving measure they could've been done.

You have a point, but she shouldn't really just get away with doing this, should she?

I'm sure her parents/guardians have some money. They are, after all, responsible for her until she's 18.

And, there's nothing better than restorative justice. Having her pick up garbage from a park or dish out soup at a kitchen wouldn't cost us very much, would it? I mean, really...we make kids that get charged with minors do that, and nobody ever complains. And this is waaaay more egregious, in my opinion.....

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by srsmn

You have a point, but she shouldn't really just get away with doing this, should she?

I'm sure her parents/guardians have some money. They are, after all, responsible for her until she's 18.

And, there's nothing better than restorative justice. Having her pick up garbage from a park or dish out soup at a kitchen wouldn't cost us very much, would it? I mean, really...we make kids that get charged with minors do that, and nobody ever complains. And this is waaaay more egregious, in my opinion.....

If there was a way to squeeze money out of the situation I'd be all for it. However, even if a judge could slap a $10,000 fine on her it would probably cost $20,000 in public resources to go through all the paper work and pay the judge and court system, etc. etc. The legal system isn't really set up to be profitable, unfortunately.

[audadvnc]

Slap her on the wrist and tell her not to do it again. She'll get the point eventually.