January 21–28, 1999

on media

Under Siege

The Philadelphia Police Department has been fighting more than crime lately. It has been fighting the media.

Since last year's Inquirer series appeared detailing how the police department's crime statistics were distorted to keep the crime rate down, national media outlets have come calling on the police department to explain its reporting methods.

But the police department and City Hall have been refusing to cooperate with some news organizations, most notably CNN and NBC.

In December, CNN's current events show, Newsstand, devoted one segment to the topic of crime reporting and featured Philadelphia's and Atlanta's reported manipulation of statistics. A promo leading into the CNN segment aired this sensational tag: "A dirty little secret in police work—the temptation to cook the books." More recently, NBC's Dateline sent a news team to Philadelphia. Its piece, which credited and relied on information first reported by Inquirer reporters Michael Matza, Craig R. McCoy and Mark Fazlollah, juxtaposed images of Mayor Rendell celebrating the city's successes with the reporter noting the city's refusal to speak with Dateline. The story, which included a couple of leading questions by the NBC correspondent, was also a bit melodramatic, suggesting the "secrets" of crime reporting go all the way to City Hall. Both the CNN and NBC pieces featured Richard Costello of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police and crime victim Rob Lehman, who attacked the police for its reporting methods.

The attention is continuing. PBS' The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer is currently producing a piece on the issue. But in this case, the city is cooperating. Asked to explain how the department is deciding with which news organization to speak, police spokeswoman Capt. Linda MacLachlin sent the following written response from Commisioner John Timoney: "I have watched this news program [The NewsHour] often enough that I considered their reporting to offer a balanced presentation. I have also seen Dateline often enough to know that the last thing on their mind is fairness in presentation, with them looking instead for things which will be sensational. This wish to sensationalize creates an inappropriate forum for discussion, so I did not consider their requests for interviews. However, I did accept the Lehrer request—where the viewing audience would not just get sound bites, but instead a fair and object view of the Department and an idea of some of the good things going on here and some sort of perspective as well. All you had to do was watch the Dateline Show to get the impression that this was going on right now when in fact, one of their cases was from 1991, so our suspicions were correct. By contrast, the Lehrer people made a commitment to getting the full story.

"I am not adverse to a close examination, but not with an interest in sensationalism. I am also not interested in dwelling on the past. We will stipulate what may have been practiced in the past, but the phrase, 'going down with crime' makes it sound intentional, when in fact it was a result of carelessness or stupidity. Systems are being put into place to address past deficiencies. What other city in America is bringing in outside auditors? (referring to Dr. Lawrence Sherman, Univ. of Maryland). The 1998 numbers will stand on their own and will withstand scrutiny and comparison with any other police department."

A call to the mayor's press spokesman, Kevin Feeley, was not returned before deadline.

The Inquirer series, "Down with Crime" and related stories, are available on a special Inquirer Web page: http://home .phillynews.com/crime/.

-Mark Naymik