Unintended Consequences of Crime Rate Pressure

The pressure to keep the crime rate going down had unintended consequences, leading to crime report manipulation and downgrading. Commanding officers were afraid to add any crimes to their stats, resulting in ignoring or downplaying serious offenses. This pressure caused senior officers to manipulate crime reports, refuse to take crime reports from victims, and even write down false information. The goal was to artificially lower the crime rate and show high police activity without focusing on actual crime-solving or addressing community safety concerns.