After an eight-month internal investigation, the town of Matthews says it is working to correct case closure rates and crime statistics that were reported by the Matthews Police Department from 2018-2022 to make the department look better.
An internal investigation was completed by US ISS Agency, a Huntersville-based private security firm, from May to December 2022, according to Matthews Town Manager Becky Hawke. The investigation was prompted by "information from members within the department," she told WFAE on Friday.
Hawke said Friday that Matthews police commanders pressured officers to make their case closure rate — the rate at which cases are solved or declared otherwise finished, typically by arresting a suspect — look better than it was by improperly marking some cases closed. This "pervasive" pressure from police commanders led to distorted statistics and an untrue representation of crime in Matthews.
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The audit also found that Matthews police presented statistics to make it seem their crime-fighting initiatives were having a greater impact.
“Presenting information in a more favorable light than reality serves no one, and the directives given within the Matthews Police Department were not in alignment with community or organizational expectations,” Hawke said.
Over the last five years, the audit found, officers and investigators improperly used a case category called “Closed by Other Means” to mark investigations as successfully completed. In fact, many of those cases should have been left open and followed up on if new investigative leads emerged, Hawke said.
The statistics Matthews Police filed during that time were inconsistent with state and federal reporting guidelines and the department's policy.
This led to a total clearance rate for cases as high as 75%, well above the national average.
"Data was then grouped with other data and then presented to the community in a way that gave us a much higher appearance of case closures and case clearances than would really be accurate," said Hawke.
Some crime reporting standards since 2018 were inconsistently applied. Matthews Police annual reports and public publications did not accurately depict crime rates in the town, Hawke said, though she also said the changes in classification that the audit found were relatively minor.
The data shown in publications left out information that impacted crime reports. This led to misreporting about some categories such as thefts from retail stores and thefts from vehicles. Asked to give some examples, Hawke mentioned larcenies recorded as shoplifting, a less serious offense.
Hawke also said the department selectively presented statistics and other information to give the misleading impression that their crime-fighting efforts were having a bigger impact than they really were. For example, declines in shoplifting were touted without mentioning that changes in store policies had an effect on the reported numbers.
"We just feel like that wasn't an accurate representation of reality," she said.
Was anyone disciplined?
Hawke would not say whether officers had been disciplined or fired.
"I can't get into any of the actual personnel actions that were taken out of this. To the most I can say, it's just there's assurances that anyone that was deemed to be responsible has been held
accountable or is no longer with us," she said to WFAE.
Former Police Chief Clark Pennington left the department in August. At the time, the town said he was retiring from law enforcement and pursuing another opportunity.
Hawke declined to say whether his resignation was related to the investigation, which was ongoing at the time of his departure.
"I really can't speak to that because the reason that he gave was that he was looking to retire from law enforcement and pursue another career opportunity in a different field. And so that's really all the information I have. Anything beyond that would be speculation," Hawke told WFAE.
Hawke did say that officers were under pressure from their superiors to make the numbers look better than reality.
“ISS’s investigation attributes these issues to command directives that created pervasive pressure for improved statistics and results, rather than focusing on proper policy application, consistent practices, and transparent explanations for any changes in data," she said. When questioned as to whether the practices the audit found were widespread throughout the department, Hawke said police commanders were responsible.
"And so the rank and file, it would not be remotely fair to, you know, look at our police officers or look at our investigators and have concerns," she said.
There are 85 full- and part-time employees in the Matthews Police Department, including 69 sworn officers. For comparison, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police count almost 2,400 employees, including 1,857 sworn officers.
The Matthews Police Department says it will publish accurate, updated statistics when its review is complete. Police are taking steps such as increased training, more quality control checks on crime reports and the removal of "Closed by Other Means" as a standard option for clearing cases.
"We are a safe community. We have been a safe community. This does not call that into question in any way, shape or form," said Hawke.
