Crime Stats Hell (Part 2)

I've always been puzzled by Brian Paddick's assertion that the British Crime Survey - the most reliable guide to crime trends - shows that overall crime levels in London haven't really fallen during the present Livingstone administration. These figures have only been broken down by region for the past two (2005/2006 and 2006/2007). So how come Paddick talks about four?

The reason is that he's been relying on a GLA document called Community Safety Quarterly which - on page three, under the heading Crime and Victimisation - refers to the BCS surveying victimisation levels in London alongside a graph going back to 2002/2003 referring - it says underneath - to "crime in England and Wales," not specifically London.

This looks like an error by Paddick, although it doesn't undermine his general thesis that a lot of crime goes unreported and that the recorded crime figures issued by the Met - and which Ken Livingstone always cites - give a less accurate overall picture of crime. Mind you, far better to go to the source.