Sadly, both statements in the heading are accurate.
 
Like other police departments, the Garland PD supplies statistics to the Uniform Crime Report that was started by the FBI. Because the report seeks to track certain crimes across the country, there are variables in how the crimes are named in various states. The report is very specific as to which crimes it wants to accumulate so each state and police department must filter all their data to capture just the crimes that feed to the report. The report is a "snap-shot" of crime — it does not purport to be a comprehensive picture.
 
The Garland PD instituted a automatic data collection process in 2000 for the UCR statistics. The software was purchased through an outside vendor but it was maintained by an internal group, all of which have since left employment with the city.
 
Chief Mitch Bates has learned that some of the crimes were coded into the software wrong, causing some crimes that should have been reported to be filtered out. Some of our UCR data has been under-reported as a consequence. It is not possible to amend the previous reports and we don't know precisely how much our number are off. We can manually review all of the 65,000 reports since 2000 but that will take several people several months.
 
Violent crime has been on the rise across the country and locally. We expected to see some rise in the violent crime UCR numbers this year compared to last. However, because of this programming problem, we are likely to see larger jump than we've really had.
 
We'll be hearing about this and I'm guessing we'll have an asterisk by our name for awhile. I can already hear Dallas going, "Ah, ha!"
 
This problem doesn't affect how we police or how the department manages itself. The UCR numbers are external and for a particular report. It just happens to be one that newspapers like to compare.
 
The statistics in the Crime Stats that I post monthly aren't affected either.
 
We will probably see some rise in crime this year. It won't be anywhere near as much as the UCR will make it appear. Except a little egg on our faces, almost nothing changes.
 
Except how the coding for the UCR is written, maintained, and audited. Chief Bates has directed that the flaws be corrected and the department is working closely with the external vendor and with the city's IT department.
 
We are all embarrassed anytime such problems are discovered and we wish it hadn't happened. However, I've campaigned and spoken about not micromanaging the staff. First, we don't have the authority but that hasn't stopped past Councils. Also, I think that our staff having the confidence to come forward to immediately report mistakes or fraud is indicative of a professional atmosphere and individuals wanting to do the best job possible.
 
And, yes, Martha, that is a good thing. It hasn't always been that way.
 
[For more information on the UCR, the Texas Department of Public Safety offers a good synopsis.]