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“The freedom of the press still furnishes that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide.” – Chicago Tribune

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Suspect crime claims

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By ERWIN CHLANDA

The Chief Minister appears to be supporting with flawed statistics claims that “offences against the person have dropped by 16%” in Alice Springs.

In a media release she is clearly relying on a police statement covering August – the latest available – that there were 150 “crimes against the person”.

Yet the same police statement reveals that there were 128 assaults, 97 domestic violence related assaults, 68 alcohol related assaults and three sexual assaults – a total of 296 crimes against the person.

Neither Ms Finocchiaro nor the police have replied to questions from the Alice Springs News.

IMAGE: Electronic anklet worn under a court order to monitor the movements of a person.

UPDATE November 10:

A reader who provided his email address wrote: I agree that accurately interpreting statistical data is sometimes challenging, especially when presented in a way that is not very clear. The statistics on the NTPFES website indicates that 97 of the total 128 assaults were classified as DV assaults while 68 of the total 128 assaults involved alcohol.

The total offences against the person, which you accurately reported as 150, is obtained by adding the 128 Assaults, 3 Sexual offences, 11 Harm or endanger related offences and 8 Robbery, blackmail and extortion related offences.

We reply: Our story was based on this. The same authority – the police – clearly providing two different statistics about the same period. See table for the comparison of the conflicting two sets of figures.