Following Passage of Bill to Improve NYPD’s Crime Reporting Data, NYC Council Releases Analysis Finding Limitations and Flaws in Existing Practices Used to Report Clearance Rates

Council evaluation demonstrates current data policies impede transparency and ability to make public safety improvements

City Hall, NY - Just days after the New York City Council passed an important reform to how the NYPD reports data measuring the proportion of reported crimes it resolves or "clears" through arrest, charging and referral of a suspect for prosecution within a specific period, known as the "clearance rate," it released a new evaluation of the department's existing practices regarding the data. The analysis, led by the Council's Data Team, found that while the NYPD has implemented some recent improvements to its collection and reporting of the data, significant limitations remain that impede the advancement of data-driven safety policies and effective accountability to improve public safety. Specifically, the evaluation identified that the department's currently reported data sets omit crimes outside of the major index crimes, incident-level information, demographic and offense details, and more granular geographic markers. This limits the ability to determine the NYPD's successes and gaps in solving crimes of different types in various parts of the city and how New Yorkers from different communities are affected.

Additionally, the analysis illuminated that prior to 2024, the NYPD's reported clearance rates included all arrests made in a quarter divided by complaints filed in the same period, regardless of whether an arrest corresponded with a complaint from a previous quarter. This historical practice led to clearance rates sometimes exceeding 100 percent, distorting the data and information about the timeliness and average resolution times for cases.

The Council analysis can be accessed here.

A review of the Manhattan clearance rate for murder in 2023 and 2024, which compared the rate that included complaints made in previous quarters with complaints that were only made in a specific quarter, consistently found that this inflated the clearance rate. A stark example can be found in 2023's Q4, where the total clearance rate for the quarter was 69.2% when excluding past complaints, but 130.8% when including them. The data also lacked any detail to help discern how many cleared complaints came from previous quarters, or how far in the past these complaints were first made.

To address the gaps and limitations in the NYPD's current clearance rate data, and to make it more accurate and reliable for use in improving policies and practices, the Council voted to approve the following bill:

Introduction 1237-A, sponsored by Council Member Oswald Feliz, would require the NYPD to post on its website data related to all criminal complaints and arrests recorded by the Department since 2007. The dataset would include: (i) the location, date, time, and nature of the offense; (ii) demographic information for victims, suspects, and arrestees; and (iii) information on whether a complaint resulted in an arrest or departmental resolution, and the date of such resolution.

"Police departments are often judged by the number of arrests they make in proportion to the number of criminal complaints there are in a particular time period and having the clear data to evaluate these numbers is essential," said Council Member Oswald Feliz, prime sponsor of Introduction 1237-A. "As the Council Data team's review of NYPD's existing reporting reveals, the current clearance data fails to include all crimes and key measurements such as demographics, location, and time and date. Incorporating these aspects into the Department's complaint and arrest data will shine a light on disparities and indicate areas where more resources may be needed. I'm pleased to see this important bill move forward to improve public safety in our city."

"The data that the city relies on to determine whether crimes are being solved must be accurate, detailed, and reliable," said Council Member Yusef Salaam, Chair of the Committee on Public Safety. "Introduction 1237-A will help us understand what kinds of crimes occur where, who the victims are, and whether there are arrests being made. The Council Data team's report makes clear that for too long, these necessary details have gone unreported, limiting the potential for useful data analysis. By having clearer and more granular information, we can improve public safety throughout the five boroughs."

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