|
St. Louis' murder total has fallen, but some killings went uncounted  When the final numbers showed that St. Louis had reduced its murders last year while other big cities were hitting records, city officials said their success was due to smart use of crime data and effective anti-violence programs. But over the past two years, St. Louis has quietly lowered its murder count in another way: classifying more than three dozen killings as what are termed justifiable homicides, sometimes in apparent violation of FBI guidelines for reporting crimes, a ProPublica/APM Reports investigation found. And for a handful of slayings, the department has simply omitted the cases from its annual totals. ▻ Read the story APM Reports is nonprofit, independent journalism. We count on donations from you to do this important work. Give Now Catch up on the Sent Away podcast Our investigative podcast about the teen treatment industry has published five of its seven episodes. Download now from Apple, Google, Spotify or your app of choice. And in the meantime, read some our companion reporting: Shutting down a teen treatment facility is no easy task, even after serious allegations  Opening a youth treatment center is relatively simple in Utah. But state regulators often can't — or won't — shut a place down after abuse is alleged. Read. Here's why Utah will soon make it easier to search a teen treatment program's violation history  Six years ago, a cruel disciplinary act against a young girl was kept secret — she had been forced to sit in a horse trough filled with cold water for 30 minutes. The incident only became public after the Sent Away team released a database of records that included every violation report documented at youth treatment facilities statewide. Today the state is planning to release violation and disciplinary information online. Read. |