Both Patrick and Healey err in characterizing crime statistics

As candidates sparred over crime during last night's gubernatorial debate, Democrat Deval L. Patrick said the Romney administration is responsible for ``700 fewer cops on the beat today" and called Massachusetts ``the most violent state" in the Northeast, worse than New York and New Jersey.

Republican Kerry Healey countered that there are now 2,000 more police officers on the streets than when she and Governor Mitt Romney took office four years ago. The lieutenant governor also said that violent crime is down in Massachusetts. ``You need to get your numbers right," she admonished Patrick.

Who's right?

Neither candidate was entirely accurate in characterizing the crime numbers.

According to 2005 FBI figures, the most recent available, Massachusetts had a far higher violent crime rate than other New England states and New Jersey, though its rate of 457 violent crimes per 100,000 people was only slightly higher than New York's 446 per 100,000.

Healey countered by saying that Massachusetts had 9 percent fewer violent crimes than four years ago. FBI figures show that the 2005 violent crime rate in Massachusetts was down about 6 percent from 2002.

But while Patrick said his numbers came from a new Department of Justice report out yesterday, they were actually included in a report released by the Massachusetts Health Council, a public health advocacy group.

After watching the debate, Marylou Buyse , the council's vice president, said, ``I think that each side used the numbers that they found most favorable to their own viewpoint and that shouldn't be surprising to anyone."

As for the competing numbers on the number of police officers, the reality is somewhat murkier.

According to FBI figures, Massachusetts reported having 18,545 uniformed state and local officers in October 2005, about 230 less than in October 2002, just before Healey took office.

(That 2005 figure does not include 240 officers who are in state agencies other than the State Police; those agencies are not listed in previous years).

Healey said during the debate that ``we actually have 2,000 more police on the streets today than we did four years ago."

Her campaign said later that she based that number on research by her staff showing that more than 2,100 new officers have been put on the street since January 2003. Campaign manager Tim O'Brien , however, acknowledged that the figure only counts graduates from police academies and does not count retirements and resignations.

Healey's campaign also said its figure does not include new officers in Boston. In June, Mayor Thomas M. Menino called for an increase of about 140 officers over the next year, to bring the police force, now at about 2,100 uniformed officers, back to the 2001 level.

Patrick's campaign, for its part, said it arrived at the figure of 700 fewer officers by averaging a federal 2004 report showing 400 fewer officers and a May 2004 interim legislative report that said the commonwealth had lost 945 officers through layoffs and attrition since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.