Kozak Responds To Collins’ Statement On Crime Stats

Cheyenne Police Chief Brian Kozak on Monday responded to a statement issued recently by Mayor-Elect Patrick Collins on crime statistics for the city and Collins’ decision not to retain Kozak when he assumes office as mayor on January 4.

You can read Collins’ statement here.

Chief Kozak responded to Collins’ comments with the following statement on Monday morning:

Once again Mr. Collins has released misinformation, which I am obligated to correct.  The Cheyenne Police Department has always released accurate crime numbers to the Division of Criminal Investigations (DCI); it is erroneous for Mr. Collins to infer otherwise.  In fact, the Cheyenne Police Department releases its crime statistic with our annual report, a year before DCI publishes them.  The reports are always available on our website. 

Clearance percentages, which is the term Mr. Collins probably meant to say, is the percentage of arrests and citations compared to index crimes.  This percentage was not being calculated by our records management system because the data continuously changes as investigations progress.  The FBI warns that clearance numbers are inaccurate and should never be used to compare police agencies.  This is the reason the outdated FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system is being replaced by the new National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).  As Chief of Police, I felt it was not prudent to spend taxpayer money into the failing UCR system.  Instead, we invested our money and efforts into NIBRS.  The Cheyenne Police Departments Records employees have worked for over a year to implement NIBRS, and it will go online January 1, 2021.  These employees should be commended for completing a very large implementation project. 

The Cheyenne Police Department has always tracked arrests/citations and reported the numbers in our annual reports.  Clearance percentages, or any other data, is always available upon request.  Mr. Collins should come to the Police Department to learn about our great employees and programs. 

Thank you,

Brian N. Kozak

Chief of Police”

Collins announced last month that he would not be retaining Kozak or Fire Chief Greg Hoggatt in his administration.