In NYC The INsiders Investigate insiders at The NYC Polide Dept.

The article below is being published by the NY Times. This is in response to articles of corruption and the manipulation of crime statistics by "The Village Voice"

In it's reporting the 'Village Voice' reports about incompetence in the NYCPD Internal Affairs Unit. The NYTimes does not mention anything in reference to those allegations. The Police Commissioner it seems, avoids any mention about Police Investigators with the task of getting reports from the public and other police officers about corruption and the breaking of laws.

Mayor Bloomberg has ignore this issue altogether.

The NYTimes reports:

Facing questions over whether crime statistics have been manipulated to cast the New York Police Department in a positive light, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, announced on Wednesday that three former federal prosecutors would review the department’s internal crime-reporting system.

Mr. Kelly said that the former prosecutors would serve on a newly formed panel, called the Crime Reporting Review Committee, and would be given broad access to people and documents to review the ways the Police Department records, tracks and audits its own crime numbers.

“The integrity of our crime-reporting system is of the utmost importance to the department,” Mr. Kelly said in a statement. “It is essential not only for maintaining the confidence of the people we serve, but reliable crime statistics are necessary for the effective planning and evaluation of crime-reduction strategies.”

For Mr. Kelly, who has repeatedly played down criticism of the statistics, the creation of the panel is a significant step toward addressing concerns that some police precincts may be miscategorizing felonies as lesser crimes.

Critics have long suggested that the crime data has been undermined by departmental incentives or threats that in many cases prompt those responsible for assessing, reporting and recording crimes — from patrol officers to precinct commanders — to downgrade offenses or discourage people from filing complaint reports.

Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said that Mr. Kelly decided to create the panel because “there’s been a lot of false, or unfair, accusations against the Police Department, and that is true over time.” The panel will have three to six months to complete its task.

Mr. Browne added that to his knowledge, no outside inquiry — such as by a prosecutor’s office or other government agency — into the department’s crime-reporting systems existed. However, Peter F. Vallone Jr., the chairman of the City Council’s public safety committee, had been gathering evidence for months to hold his own hearing on the subject, and said he now would wait until the panel had reached its conclusions.

“I believe that the statistics were in fact being manipulated,” Mr. Vallone said. “I have spoken to many current and former police officers who unfortunately refused to go on the record but who have corroborated that fact. And I’ve spoken to many civilians whose valid complaints were not accepted by the Police Department.”

The three panel members have all worked in the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan. They are David N. Kelley, who led the office from 2003 to 2005; Sharon L. McCarthy, who, as a special counsel to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo when he was state attorney general, looked into whether there had been political interference in the State Police; and Robert G. Morvillo, a prominent defense lawyer who is perhaps best known for defending Martha Stewart.