In April 1994 the New York Police Department introduced CompStat, created by Commissioner Bill Bratton and Jack Maple. The department kept a daily-updated record of reported crimes, and its leaders met regularly to review the trends. Maple called his crime maps the “Charts of the Future.”
Precinct commanders answered for their numbers. Three-quarters of them “were dismissed over 18 months for failing to bring the numbers down.” The system was copied in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia and Mexico.
Under the same pressure, some commanders distorted the crime statistics.