Numbers always tell the truth, right?
Not really.
Steve Neaving of the Motor City Muckraker reports there's a reason the arson numbers the city of Detroit reported to the FBI recently showed the city’s arson rate dropped in half, and the city no longer led the nation in intentionally set fires.
It's not that arsons really dropped so dramatically in the first six months of 2014, Neavling reports.
The real reason, Neavling writes: Detroit’s understaffed arson unit is investigating fewer fires. And the only way to declare an arson is to investigate the fire.
“Only fires we investigate and determine to be arsons are reflected” in the FBI data, Executive Fire Commission Edsel Jenkins told Neavling. “Fire Investigators are also focusing more on investigations where we can prosecute arsonists versus performing investigations in general (where there is no complainant or witness) which is another reason that number may be low.”
Arsons have decimated some Detroit neighborhoods, and likely resulted in some people fleeing the city.
The report in Motor City Muckraker is part of an ongoing series examining the fire department.
