Lies, damned lies and statistics

Mark Twain once borrowed an extract of a speech by Benjamin Disraeli and uttered the famous phrase, 'There are three kinds of lies - lies, damned lies and statistics'. The truth of this emerges at regular intervals when governments produce figures designed to make themselves look good and to placate fears felt by their electorate.

The latest of these - which will come as no surprise to anyone who lives in the inner cities of Britain - is that the police in some areas have under reported the level of serious crime. To such a degree it would appear that the level of violent crime in the United Kingdom was under reported by a staggering 22%.

It appears clear that this is not crime that was omitted, simply put into the wrong category, but the difference once clarification has been made is quite shocking. Of course the police spend half their time compiling statistics and putting a tick in the right box just so that government ministers like the Home Secretary. Jacqui Smith, can appear on television quoting crime statistics that favour the government.



Most of the problem is caused by the Home Office continually sending out new instructions in the way they want crime reported. As recently as April this year the guidelines were changed again and the police sent another set of instructions on how they account for crime.

This is quite ridiculous and clearly being fine tuned to such degrees that the prime aim is to provide great political ammunition and not assisting in controlling crime. Keith Bristow who is the Chief Constable of Warwickshire supports the recent government changes to reporting statistics but I'm sure he and other police chiefs would now be grateful for a degree of stability in all this chopping and changing.

As far as Ms Smith's government department is concerned it might be well advised to declare a moratorium on further tinkering with the way crime statistics are analysed and spend time ensuring that every police force is singing off the same hymn sheet. I do feel there is a tendency with this government to over complicate in every area - lets face it they have driven the teachers nuts over SATS testing - and this is another example whereby the recording of data enables the government to parcel it in any way that suits their purpose. Lets get back to basics and concentrate on letting the police do their prime job of catching criminals and not filling in tick sheets designed to make the government look good in the media.