So, I figured I'd help educate rather than have anyone continue to spout data that has been proven to be wrong:
And one of the stories that led to the admission:
Phoenix police reported that there were 358 kidnapping calls in their community during 2008, and that a majority of them were linked to drug and human smuggling across the Arizona-Mexico border.
In recent months, Phoenix police union leaders have raised questions about the veracity of those statistics. And while they promulgate doubt, City Manager David Cavazos, Police Chief Jack Harris and Mayor Phil Gordon continue to dismiss concerns that kidnapping statistics are inaccurate or intentionally inflated.
A New Times analysis of 264 of the 358 reported kidnappings shows that only about one out of every four incidents labeled as kidnappings in 2008 appeared connected to border-related crimes.
Chief Harris had agreed to discuss the kidnapping statistics with New Times, but a few days later, a police spokesman said that Harris was going to pass on the interview.
Police officials say they aren't commenting because of an ongoing audit of those statistics by the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General.
New Times reviewed 264 police reports on a list of 2008 kidnappings -- a list generated and released by the Phoenix Police Department. While all 358 reports on that list are titled "Kidnapping," at least 53 of the actual police reports do not have the same title.
For instance, 24 of the police reports were titled armed robberies or extortions, 7 were listed as aggravated assaults and 8 were classified as possible violations of federal immigration laws. The labels on 14 other reports included a suspicious person, non-aggravated assault and robbery without a weapon.
...
But, of the 264 available police reports reviewed by New Times, only 64 incidents had discernible ties to human smuggling and kidnapping. That means thatPhoenix was dealing with Mexican-style kidnap-for-ransom cases an average of once a week, not daily.
...
On May 13, 2008, a 20-year-old man attacked his ex-girlfriend after she drove to his apartment complex to pick up money that he owed her. When she arrived, he got into her truck and they spoke for a few minutes.
He asked her for a kiss, and she said no. Her refusal angered him, and he grabbed a fistful of her hair, and then her throat when she started screaming. She tried to get herself and her child out of the car, but he got a hold of her shirt, ripped it along with the purse she was holding. He forced her to stay inside the car for more than half an hour before she eventually escaped.
She reported the crime to police the following day. Cops drove to his apartment, he admitted the attack on his ex and was arrested.
The single-day investigation did not require intensive resources and the nonstop involvement of 60 specially-trained police officers and detectives, but it is among those 358 kidnapping cases purportedly assigned to specially-trained police squads.
Another report, this one dated March 21, 2008, notes an early morning call from the Blessed Sacrament Church to Phoenix police. A priest told police he received an e-mail from someone threatening to kill him if he didn't pay $15,000. He said he had no idea who sent it.
Cops went to the church, picked up the e-mail and logged the incident as DR 2008-80486550, a five-sentence departmental report labeled, "Extortion."
The single-page report from 2008 makes no mention of any harm coming to the priest, or of anyone being kidnapped. Nevertheless, it ended up on the list of kidnappings in that year
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