Monday Morning Read

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Most police departments in New York State are not reporting crime data to the FBI, according to the Marshall Project.

Only “41 out of 583 law enforcement agencies in New York successfully submitted data to the FBI through the National Incident-Based Reporting System in 2022. The agencies that reported any crime stats represent roughly 1 in 5 people in the state,” the Marshall Project reported.

“Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia had higher reporting rates than New York.”

I checked out the site’s searchable database — you should, too — and found Buffalo and Niagara Falls reported to the FBI. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office did not. Neither did the police departments of Amherst, Cheektowaga, Lancaster, Depew, Lockport, West Seneca, Orchard Park, East Aurora or the Town of Tonawanda, among others.

As the Marshall Project noted: “When local police departments don’t report data to the FBI, examining local crime trends or comparing rates in different communities becomes impossible.”

A couple of scoops from Ken Kruly and his Politics and Other Stuff: 

• Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns, whose office is under investigation for sloppy work and missing funds, is thinking about running for his old Assembly seat. The job pays a lot more and involves less work.
• Mayor Byron Brown’s “Cannabis revenue projections are high, very high.” Another example of bad budgeting.

Andrew Cuomo is an even more despicable character than we thought, putting his sister up to orchestrate a smear campaign against some of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct.

You’d think cops and prison guards would be on the radar screen of the state’s human rights watchdog. You’d be wrong. As New York Focus reports: “The state Division of Human Rights considers prisons, jails, and police departments exempt from human rights law.”

The Buffalo News reported in Saturday’s paper that the Bills stadium project could already be $300 million over budget. Pretty big scoop, right? The Associated Press reported that story Wednesday.

The Atlantic makes the case that investing in local journalism saves the public money.

The Pew Research Center lays out all sorts of facts and figures on public broadcasting. “On the whole, the news offerings of U.S. public broadcasters have been marked by relative financial stability, with some declines in audience since 2020,” Pew reported.

I’m late to this: Margaret Sullivan interviews Carl Bernstein on her podcast.

I’m ahead of this: Bob Woodward speaks next Thursday at the Chautauqua Institution.

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The New York Times published a four-day spread Friday on Elon Musk’s dominance in satellite technology. It’s a concerning, must-read, and the visual presentation is stunning. Musk has more than 4,500 satellites in the sky, more than all other government and private entities combined. “This is not just one company, but one person,” one expert told The Times. “You are completely beholden to his whims and desires.”

ProPublica continues to bird-dog the ethical lapses of Clarence Thomas. The latest: all the goodies he’s accepted from billionaires.

In the “about time” category, hockey leagues are starting to ban fighting. In Canada, no less.

RIP, Robbie Robertson. A great songwriter and musician who led a great band — The Band. An appreciation from Rolling Stone. And a contemporary performance by Robertson and friends (including Ringo) of his most famous composition.

Jim Heaney