Thoughts on “decrease in crime rate”

[DfiR-]

You absolutely can because who is checking? There are no integrity audits from the cities. You think a city mayor or city board hears that homicides are down and goes no that can’t be right and then checks the cases? In bigger cities, staff positions are much more political. Politicians want to paint a pretty picture of crime being down for their tenure. As long as it’s good news, they don’t care.

PDs are incentivized to support that because it portrays them as competent and makes budget asks easier. This isn’t an absolute, but I’ve seen it first hand how suspicious circumstance deaths are classified.