My local paper's 'crime wave' story missed the real numbers from the police report

They ran a front page piece about a 50% spike in car break-ins in my neighborhood, which had everyone freaking out. But when I actually pulled the quarterly report from the Springfield PD website, that jump was from 2 incidents to 3 over the last three months. The article never mentioned the raw numbers, just the percentage, which paints a totally different picture. Has anyone else had their local news blow a small stat way out of proportion like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

stone.daniel1d ago

Checked the police report after my town's paper ran a "surge in vandalism" headline. Turns out they called four damaged mailboxes a crime wave. Emailed the reporter directly with a link to the public stats and asked why they left out the actual count. They actually printed a small correction the next week, buried on page six, but it was something.

stella_black331d ago

Yeah, that tracks. I once got a local news alert about "suspicious activity" and it was just a guy standing by a bus stop for a long time. He was waiting for the bus. My own personal crime wave is when my neighbor's cat knocks over my trash cans. I guess I should call the paper.

alice4571d ago

Love how the news turns "guy existing in public" into a full blown crisis. My trash panda raids could be front page news with that logic.

jason_davis1d ago

Seriously, it's all about clicks. They need you scared so you keep watching. Whole system is broken, lol.