From BBC, England and Wales
A Met Police (read Scotland Yard) whistle-blower claimed rape and sexual offences were being under-reported by as much as a quarter.
And a former West Midlands chief inspector described practices such as recording thefts as "lost property".
Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin said he was "shocked" by the claims of such manipulation "on such a wide scale".
Metropolitan Police constable James Patrick - who is currently awaiting disciplinary proceedings - told the Commons public administration committee his concerns had begun after he joined the force in 2009.
He had found robberies being logged as "theft snatch" in order to get them "off the books", he said.
After raising his concerns with an assistant commissioner, PC Patrick was moved into a specialist role looking at the measurement of crime levels, where he found disparities between numbers of burglary reports and those finally recorded.
"Burglary is an area where crimes are downgraded or moved into other brackets, such as criminal damage for attempted burglaries, or other types of thefts," he said.
An audit carried out by analysts inside the Met found that "as many as 300 burglaries would disappear within a couple of weeks", he told the committee.
Analysing 12 months of data, PC Patrick said he had also found that "the Met had effectively been under-recording rape and serious sexual offences by between 22% and 25%".
PC Patrick said he had learnt that, in an effort to avoid the perception of serious sex crimes going undetected, "a preference had developed to try to justify 'no crime' on the basis of mental health or similar issues of vulnerability or by saying that the victim has refused to disclose to them".
Former West Midlands chief inspector Dr Rodger Patrick - no relation of the constable - backed his account: "This is my experience as well. You can see that in the investigations that are being carried out, victims are being pressured."
PC Patrick told the committee that massaging statistics had become "an ingrained part of policing culture".
London's target of a 20% crime reduction was set by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and passed down the chain of command from the commissioner to constables on the beat, whose chances of promotion were linked to hitting the target.
Former Met Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Barron told the committee: "When targets are set by offices such as the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime, what they think they are asking for are 20% fewer victims.
"That translates into 'record 20% fewer crimes' as far as... senior officers are concerned."
Mr Barron also said that inaccurate recording of crimes had an impact on the ground, as the statistics were used to determine the number of officers deployed in particular areas which were "grossly out of kilter with the real demand as opposed to the recorded demand".
He said: "There is a massive disconnect between the reality of what's happening on the ground and the formula used to determine the appropriate workforce for the borough."
He said: "The issues we are describing here are common knowledge at every level in every force within England and Wales."
One has to wonder if it is common practice at every level and in every force in England and Wales, where else, in the world, is it also common practice. Statistics for child sex abuse are difficult enough to document, then comes news that police are still discouraging the filing of complaints and are fudging the statistics when complaints are filed.
The numbers at the top of this blog (250 million sexually abused children this century), and those at my post on statistics, are horrifying enough. But to think they could be 5 or 10 or 20% higher, is hardly imaginable.
Please help make this issue known in your community or country and attempt to get an investigation into whether or not your police force is fudging numbers, and pray that true and accurate numbers will be recorded from now on.
And he added: "We now find ourselves in a situation where potentially forces will be amalgamating across England and Wales and, therefore, chief officers might think it is a good idea to shine bright at this time because they want to be one of the few surviving chief constables.
"How do they do that? They achieve their performance targets. This is fraud."
A Met Police (read Scotland Yard) whistle-blower claimed rape and sexual offences were being under-reported by as much as a quarter.
And a former West Midlands chief inspector described practices such as recording thefts as "lost property".
Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin said he was "shocked" by the claims of such manipulation "on such a wide scale".
Metropolitan Police constable James Patrick - who is currently awaiting disciplinary proceedings - told the Commons public administration committee his concerns had begun after he joined the force in 2009.
He had found robberies being logged as "theft snatch" in order to get them "off the books", he said.
After raising his concerns with an assistant commissioner, PC Patrick was moved into a specialist role looking at the measurement of crime levels, where he found disparities between numbers of burglary reports and those finally recorded.
"Burglary is an area where crimes are downgraded or moved into other brackets, such as criminal damage for attempted burglaries, or other types of thefts," he said.
An audit carried out by analysts inside the Met found that "as many as 300 burglaries would disappear within a couple of weeks", he told the committee.
Analysing 12 months of data, PC Patrick said he had also found that "the Met had effectively been under-recording rape and serious sexual offences by between 22% and 25%".
PC Patrick said he had learnt that, in an effort to avoid the perception of serious sex crimes going undetected, "a preference had developed to try to justify 'no crime' on the basis of mental health or similar issues of vulnerability or by saying that the victim has refused to disclose to them".
Former West Midlands chief inspector Dr Rodger Patrick - no relation of the constable - backed his account: "This is my experience as well. You can see that in the investigations that are being carried out, victims are being pressured."
PC Patrick told the committee that massaging statistics had become "an ingrained part of policing culture".
London's target of a 20% crime reduction was set by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and passed down the chain of command from the commissioner to constables on the beat, whose chances of promotion were linked to hitting the target.
Former Met Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Barron told the committee: "When targets are set by offices such as the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime, what they think they are asking for are 20% fewer victims.
"That translates into 'record 20% fewer crimes' as far as... senior officers are concerned."
Mr Barron also said that inaccurate recording of crimes had an impact on the ground, as the statistics were used to determine the number of officers deployed in particular areas which were "grossly out of kilter with the real demand as opposed to the recorded demand".
He said: "There is a massive disconnect between the reality of what's happening on the ground and the formula used to determine the appropriate workforce for the borough."
He said: "The issues we are describing here are common knowledge at every level in every force within England and Wales."
One has to wonder if it is common practice at every level and in every force in England and Wales, where else, in the world, is it also common practice. Statistics for child sex abuse are difficult enough to document, then comes news that police are still discouraging the filing of complaints and are fudging the statistics when complaints are filed.
The numbers at the top of this blog (250 million sexually abused children this century), and those at my post on statistics, are horrifying enough. But to think they could be 5 or 10 or 20% higher, is hardly imaginable.
Please help make this issue known in your community or country and attempt to get an investigation into whether or not your police force is fudging numbers, and pray that true and accurate numbers will be recorded from now on.
And he added: "We now find ourselves in a situation where potentially forces will be amalgamating across England and Wales and, therefore, chief officers might think it is a good idea to shine bright at this time because they want to be one of the few surviving chief constables.
"How do they do that? They achieve their performance targets. This is fraud."
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