The way WA police has been recording crime statistics could have compromised the reliability of their online crime information, an independent review by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found.
WA police called on the national statistics agency to carry out the review after finding errors within their own crime recording practices.
The review by ABS showed that issues such as recording offences which didn’t happen, recording several offences for one single incident, and recording multiple offenders and offences for one single incident among others compromised the information.
The review also showed that had the data been recorded properly there would be a reduction of between 6.4 and 5.5 per cent in offences.
Police commissioner Karl O'Callaghan announced changes to the way police records and reports crime information on Monday morning based on recommendations by the ABS.
“I wanted to have confidence that the crime statistics we published on our website properly reflected an accurate picture of reported crime,” he said.
“Both our internal assessment and the ABS found that some counting practices, processes and technical systems had evolved over time resulting in a variation in recording and over-reporting of some offence types.
“The changes proposed by the ABS will improve the quality of our statistical data and make sure our future recording and reporting practices align with the national standards.”
OThe first suggestion by the ABS will see WA Police roll out several changes to their website to improve data analysis, add more detail in some crime categories and include better explanatory information.
They will also be shifting from monthly crime statistics to quarterly reporting of crime statistics, with the first quarterly report, which will still feature month by month data, being released in October.
