Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Detroit police understate homicides

|
|
 
  
Published: June 18, 2009 at 4:08 PM

DETROIT, June 18 (UPI) -- Detroit police routinely understated homicide numbers, but the actual count is the nation's highest among big cities, The Detroit News reported.

The newspaper's analysis of police and medical examiner records found police had incorrectly reclassified 22 of 368 homicides last year as "justifiable" and did not report them to the FBI.

For 2008, the newspaper found, the police also excluded the murders of two men stabbed to death because of "insufficient evidence" and reported that a man beaten to death had died by accident. A baby beaten to death and a man fatally shot didn't make the original police tally either, the News reported.

The adjusted homicide total puts Detroit's rate at 40.7 per 100,000 residents, not the 33.8 the police previously reported, making it the deadliest among cities of more than 500,000.

The FBI defines a justifiable homicide as the killing of a felon "by a peace officer in the line of duty and the killing of a felon, during commission of a felony, by a citizen," the News said.

Under-reporting homicides raises questions about whether cases are fully investigated and about the accuracy of information used to deploy crime-fighting resources or tell how well they work, the News said.

Recommended Stories
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade Proposition 8 ruled unconstitutional in California
AARP Movies for Grownups Award Gala The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Snowy Owls make appearance in Washington
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Cold snap across Europe
View Caption
fark
32-megajoule railgun has been delivered to the Navy, is capable of launching a projectile with the...
Drilled through the heart, and you're to blame. You give mayonnaise tubs a bad name
Naked man climbs radio tower, doesn't receive good reception
British swingers club may be forced to close because your mom can't keep her gangbangs at a reasonable...
Angry dad de-lifes couple for defriending his daughter on Facebook
Mexico wants to be less decapitatey, more touristy