On the 15th of every month, the sole crime analyst at the Beverly Hills Police Department, (BHPD) Karina Amaral, is responsible for putting together and publishing a monthly crime statistics report for the public. Prior to 2016, the BHPD only publicly released one crime report at the end of each year. Since January 2016, however, there have been monthly reports released, and in 2018, the department began releasing one-page end of year reports, designed to be easily understood for the public. The Courier sat down with Amaral and the police department’s Lieutenant Max Subin to understand how the numbers are tabulated, what specific criteria are used to justify the accounting and how and why the designation of certain crimes are reclassified in the reports.
Under the management of Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli, in an effort to be more transparent and provide the public with easily digestible crime statistics, the BHPD included for the first time a summary in their end of year report. The most recent year’s report began, “In 2019, overall crime decreased by over 14%; meanwhile, the department made over 2,000 arrests which
