Chapter 2: Homicidal Math, Ep. 1
Each September, the Federal Bureau of Investigations releases crime data from the previous year. The data is compiled from over 16,000 police agencies, including Memphis Police Department, and comes with the usual caveats:
The data is not exhaustive.
A number of factors can lead to crime activity and how crime is reported.
Without taking considerations into account, the data can be deceiving, including factors like population size and density, citizens’ attitudes toward crime and policing, the effective strength of the police force among other things.
In other words, given all of these considerations, it makes no sense to rank or make comparisons “as a way of measuring law enforcement effectiveness.” And I would argue that it also extends to measuring the morals of a community based on the data provided.
Yet, it happens. Year after year. Damn near month after month.
How crime stats measure and the reporting on what those measurements may mean-- on an annual, quarterly or even monthly basis -- is a routine practice of local journalism. It’s benchmarking. And while there are a number of crimes that occur, none is benchmarked and followed so closely like homicides.
That’s our focus for Chapter 2: examining reporting that benchmarks crime stats like homicides -- or better yet, homicidal math.
This is the markup by mediaverse, I’m Richard Thompson, founder of Mediaverse, and joined by my co-host Melonee Gaines of MPact Media Group. Our producer is Brandi Hunter, bhmedia.
Homicidal math is like a word problem and it never completely adds up. Again, monthly, quarterly and even annually, we see the reports comparing the number of murders and the rate of murders in Memphis to other cities -- even though the FBI discourages such comparisons. At various points, the city has been in the nation’s murder capital discussion.
But let’s take a moment to consider the math. In fact, let’s take this word problem back to middle school. To discuss this, we’ll be joined by April Thompson, a veteran math teacher who, full disclosure, is my wife.
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Part II
I’m going to read an excerpt from a January 7, 2021 story published by The Daily Memphian but, before I do, I want to make it clear that this isn’t about the reporter -- this is about the practice of benchmarking stories.
OK:
Memphis finished 2020 with 332 homicides, a staggering and record-setting number that left police shaking their heads and looking for answers.
“I have been in homicide off and on for almost 14 to 15 years, either as an investigator or a supervisor, and I have not seen anything like this before,” Lt. Tony Mullins, a veteran homicide detective with the Memphis Police Department, said. “We’ve seen it (homicide rate) trending upward for the last six years now since 2015, but not these type of numbers in 2020.”
The year’s total finished with a triple shooting Dec. 30 in the 1200 block of Firestone, bringing the total to 332 deaths. That total shattered the previous record, set in 2016, of 228 homicides.
The number also represents an increase of nearly 51% from 2019, according to data released by MPD.
Of those killed, the largest number were African American men. A total of 263 Black men died by violence last year.
As a journalist, there are several things that stand out:
the complete acceptance of the police narrative
police are overwhelmed.
there may have been 332 death but not all of them are considered homicides. the FBI showed Memphis reporting 272 homicide incidents.
the last sentence focusing on African American men.
These stories have real implications, especially on policy. To talk about that, we’ll welcome Josh Spickler of Just City.
