By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The NYPD can't manipulate the murder rate but may pull strings to lower other CompStat crime rate statistics, retired Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said Tuesday.
"I think that the figures are pretty accurate — there may be a little cheating here and there," Morgenthau said at a New York Press Club event.
"Nothing of any significance, I think," the 35-year district attorney added.
The homicide rates are not tampered with by police because a victim's body accounts for each incident, Morgenthau reasoned.
Recent reports suggested NYPD officials lowered the values of stolen items so thefts would be logged as misdemeanors. In some cases officers discouraged victims from reporting crimes in order to meet the demands of department officials, some retired officers anonymously said.
"We used to think the police over-charged," Morgenthau said.
Manhattan's top prosecutor, who served the city from 1975 until this past December, cited a drastically improved murder rate.
In 1975 there were 650 murders in Manhattan and in 2008 there were 62, he said.
CompStat also tracks and publishes weekly and annual figures in the following categories: rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand theft auto.
The legendary district attorney suggested there is room to meddle with the non-murders categories but thought CompStat has been generally accurate.
CompStat has been tracking the city's crime data since 1995.
