Editorial

Downgrading crimes

Serial rapist case is a sad reminder of the cost of misreporting by police.

When Philadelphia police dismissed the claims of two Center City women who said they were attacked by apartment intruders, a depraved man likely was left free to continue his nightmarish sex attacks. Eventually, he killed.

That's not to say the Center City serial rapist who strangled Shannon Schieber, a University of Pennsylvania graduate student, would have been caught in the summer of 1997. He's since proven to be cagey, eluding police even after the May 1998 murder and three more sex attacks, one as recent as Aug. 28.

But had the alarm been sounded in '97 over the first assault, near 21st and Spruce Streets, and then a second, just around the corner, the manhunt could have started then.

The scene around the now-jittery Rittenhouse Square neighborhood might have looked more like it does today: composite drawings of the man posted in storefronts, plainclothes cops scouring the area, and, most important, young women on their guard against nighttime home attacks.

Such vigilance might have altered the rapist's routine, steered him elsewhere - yes, perhaps to other victims - or resulted in his capture.

That's why the disclosures about city police discounting the reports of these sex assaults, though hardly uncommon in police work nationally, are particularly disturbing. The department has a long history - now being addressed - of downgrading crime reports to keep the city's reported crime rate artificially low. These rapes provide compelling evidence of that practice's potential human costs.

As documented by The Inquirer over the last year, thousands of strong-arm robberies, assaults, house break-ins, thefts and the like went uninvestigated, as police fudged crime statistics. This not only affronted the crime victims, it endangered public safety - since criminals remained at large.

Upon his arrival last year, Police Commissioner John F. Timoney recognized that the routine downgrading of crimes - basically, shelving them - would make a mockery of his vaunted high-tech techniques for curbing crime. Computerized mapping of crimes is done to detect patterns, but the crimes don't show up if they're miscoded.

The commissioner has ordered an end to what he called the "stupid" practice of placing crime reports in the twilight zone category of "investigation of person" - as was done in what might have been the serial rapist's earliest attack in 1997.

The apparent second attack, in July 1997 on another Center City woman who was choked and stripped naked inside her apartment, was listed as a burglary by police. Now that it's been confirmed as the work of the rapist-killer, the case should become Exhibit A for Mr. Timoney: He needs to correct what's been haywire in the sex-crimes unit.

The Police Department has embarked on a full-scale hunt for the rapist, including an appeal for anyone with information on the crimes to call 215-686-3334 or 215-686-3335.