Summary
This review assesses the processes by which Victoria Police crime counting rules and classifications are applied to crime allegations; the data quality and monitoring mechanisms for crime statistics and clearing data; the methods and practices in relation to the recording and inclusion of crime data onto the Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) database; the reliability and veracity of the compilation of Victoria Police statistics; and the analytical programs and tools used to generate crime data. This report details the findings of the review relating to these issues, including findings from an analysis of a sample of LEAP records from June 2001 and from a scenario based survey of police officers' decision making processes. The report also makes recommendations to improve the recording of crimes, and their further processing and conversion into published crime statistics.