Taking a page from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, law enforcement, police in Dallas, Texas, have claimed a 12% drop in crime, which just happened to coincide with new rules making it harder for businesses to report shoplifting cases.

The Dallas Morning News found that almost a third of the crime reduction could be attributed to a new policy that discourages shop owners from calling the police about shoplifting cases under $50.

The newspaper’s investigation determined that the decrease in shoplifting cases occurred on the same day the new reporting policy took effect. Dallas Police Chief David Brown rejected the media’s finding and argued crime was really going down because of good police work.

The controversy resembles Milwaukee’s situation where the chief of police announced in February that crime had declined 21% during his first term in office. But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel uncovered at least 500 cases of violent crime that were misreported to the federal government, raising doubts about the drop in criminal activity.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Changes to Dallas Police Shoplifting Policy Spur Drop in Crime Stats (by Tanya Eiserer and Steve Thompson, Dallas Morning News)

Milwaukee Police Lowered Crime Rate…by Misreporting Violent Assaults (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)