Flaws in the 2010 Winnipeg Police Annual Report

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

Looks like the Winnipeg Police Service needs bone up on their math skills. Their 2010 annual report includes some strange stats. When comparing 2010 with 2009:

• They report a 20-30% decrease in crime per district, even though their reported city-wide decrease is only 7%.
• This 7% decrease, when compared with their actual reported offence numbers, turns out to be a 9% increase.
• They report a decreases in “Events for Service” for all districts, even though there was no significant city-wide change in “Events for Service” between the two years.

Some of these discrepancies appear to be tied to the new WPS policy of listing certain incidents as “non-district specific.”