DENVER — An internal audit of the Denver Police Department has revealed more than 1,000 criminal cases were misclassified and reduced to non-criminal offenses.
The findings from the internal review of the department’s crime data were released Thursday. Chief Robert White called for the in-depth audit January 12, after the end of year review of crime statistics revealed anomalies.
The data audit revealed that in 2016 and 2017, a total of 1,189 cases, which police say is less than 1 percent of all crimes, were changed from crime reports to “letters to detective.”
According to police, letters to detectives are internal reports of incidents that are not criminal, but are still investigated by detectives, and do not count as crimes by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Police say since the audit, 699 previously misclassified cases were reclassified as crimes. DPD officials say the corrected data will be sent back to CBI within the next week.
While the initial audit is complete, an internal investigation is ongoing to determine why this miscategorizing occurred and how it can be mitigated from happening in the future.