How Police Plan to cut crime - they won't count vandalism

Everyday in the newspapers there are examples of people distorting the (so-called) performance data they are judged (rewarded and punished) upon to give the illusion of achieving targets imposed upon them by government. This sort of effect has been pointed out to those in authority time and time again over the years, and yet for some reason it continues. When will they realise that this is simply getting in the way of people working together to get some genuine improvement going?

"Police officers are being ordered not to record criminal damage as crime.
A leaked memo has revealed that rank-and-file officers in the Norfolk force have been told that incidents such as car vandalism should not be classed as an offence when there is "no idea how it happened".
The disclosure brought accusations last Details of the policy emerged in the memo from an inspector in Norwich, which said that one of this year's targets was to "keep recorded crime down to 1,500". It is believed the inspector was referring to a sector of the city.
It added: "We appear to be making things difficult for ourselves by 'criming' things which aren't actually crimes.
"One example is where a car window is found to be damaged, no entry to vehicle, no witnesses and no idea how it happened.
"This has been recorded as criminal damage, even though there is no evidence to suggest it fits the definition. If there is no evidence of someone intending to destroy or be reckless then there is no crime."
The memo added: "Please ask yourself if there is evidence of a crime or if it is more appropriate to deal with it in a different way." night that the force is trying to massage crime figures by ignoring acts of vandalism. "

You can read the full article at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23482482-details/How+police+plan+to+cut+crime:+They+won't+count+vandalism/article.do