The Victorian chief commissioner of police has had another tough day at the office... fending off a damning report that his force's collating of crime statistics is distorted.
The police corruption watchdog says the force is unable to produce accurate crime clearance statistics.
It says that even though there is no evidence of corruption, the process is open to manipulation.
This has led to more criticism of Simon Overland, who's been beleaguered by calls for his resignation in recent months.
Mary Gearin reports.
MARY GEARIN: Significant flaws; inadequate processes; deficiencies requiring urgent attention.
All in all, the report from the Office of Police Integrity makes discomforting reading for the Victorian police force, and in particular, its chief commissioner Simon Overland.
Today he accepted some of the OPI's criticism but emphasised just how tricky statistics can be.
SIMON OVERLAND: I mean hands up who failed stats. You know, this is really hard stuff to actually get right.
MARY GEARIN: The OPI found no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing by any individual in relation to the systemic issues.
What it did find was inherent flaws in police methodology, including uncertainty about whether a crime should be recorded when it's reported to police or when it enters the database; that affects the accuracy of police response times.
The OPI says the current system can make it seem as if, in any financial year, police successfully clear more crimes than is the case, and that less crime is happening than is actually the case.
Simon Overland says that distortion shouldn't be over-stated.
SIMON OVERLAND: There is a very small issue about if a crime happens at the end of the financial year but is not reported until the next financial year, there is an issue around that, but we say that is a very, very, very small percentage of the overall crime that we're actually dealing with here.
MARY GEARIN: Victoria's crime statistics are fed into national bodies, like the Australian Bureau of Statistics for analysis.
The Bureau's head of crime statistics Lane Masterton says on an initial reading of the report, the distortion will have only a relatively minor effect on his work.
The police corruption watchdog says the force is unable to produce accurate crime clearance statistics.
It says that even though there is no evidence of corruption, the process is open to manipulation.
This has led to more criticism of Simon Overland, who's been beleaguered by calls for his resignation in recent months.
Mary Gearin reports.
MARY GEARIN: Significant flaws; inadequate processes; deficiencies requiring urgent attention.
All in all, the report from the Office of Police Integrity makes discomforting reading for the Victorian police force, and in particular, its chief commissioner Simon Overland.
Today he accepted some of the OPI's criticism but emphasised just how tricky statistics can be.
SIMON OVERLAND: I mean hands up who failed stats. You know, this is really hard stuff to actually get right.
MARY GEARIN: The OPI found no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing by any individual in relation to the systemic issues.
What it did find was inherent flaws in police methodology, including uncertainty about whether a crime should be recorded when it's reported to police or when it enters the database; that affects the accuracy of police response times.
The OPI says the current system can make it seem as if, in any financial year, police successfully clear more crimes than is the case, and that less crime is happening than is actually the case.
Simon Overland says that distortion shouldn't be over-stated.
SIMON OVERLAND: There is a very small issue about if a crime happens at the end of the financial year but is not reported until the next financial year, there is an issue around that, but we say that is a very, very, very small percentage of the overall crime that we're actually dealing with here.
MARY GEARIN: Victoria's crime statistics are fed into national bodies, like the Australian Bureau of Statistics for analysis.
The Bureau's head of crime statistics Lane Masterton says on an initial reading of the report, the distortion will have only a relatively minor effect on his work.
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