• CRIME STATS: Do they tell the whole story?

A New York Times article focuses on a New York city problem that I suspect is replicated many other places.

Some question the accuracy of crime data because they think many crimes go unreported. In this account, many go unreported because cops discourage the filing of official reports. Some of it is the simple futility factor (I think of the multiple incursions into my street-parked clunker for petty thefts and the unrealisic expectation of crime scene analysis or arrest of the bums responsible.) But also:

Crime victims in New York sometimes struggle to persuade the police to write down what happened on an official report. The reasons are varied. Police officers are often busy, and few relish paperwork. But in interviews, more than half a dozen police officers, detectives and commanders also cited departmental pressure to keep crime statistics low.

What's your experience, in Little Rock or anywhere in Arkansas? Have you been discouraged from filing police reports? In 39 years of answering news desk calls in Little Rock, one of the most frequent complaints I've received has been about police taking crime reports by phone but not making immediate site visits for, say, residential burglaries. I tend toward sympathy with police on this. So much crime, so little time and manpower. So little chance of gathering meaningful evidence at the crime scene as opposed to, say, a pawn shop. That said, police response was fine on my two home burglaries. You?

(SPEAKING OF CRIME STATS: Note that the count of 24 homicides shown through October 2011 has zipped up to 37 as of yesterday.)

• CARLOS CORBIN: Retired during investigation.

The investigation of that wreck has been finished and the police will file no charges against Corbin, though investigators concluded the accident happened in a way different than Corbin originally reported. I was provided the file on the wreck under a Freedom of Information Act request I made earlier this week.

The investigation was extensive and included the work of accident reconstruction officers and examination of the car's on-board crash data unit. Officers concluded that Corbin's unmarked police car left the road and hit a pole and a tree on the drive in Interstate Park off the south end of Arch Street. They concluded the wreck was not the result of a hit-and-run driver several blocks north on M.L. King Drive, as Corbin had reported to police communications officers in the early morning hours of Sunday, Oct. 2.

Lt. Terry Hastings, the police information officer, said no charges would be filed because it was a one-vehicle accident that didn't involve personal injury. Despite the findings contrary to what Corbin had said, "We don’t believe he knowingly made a false police report. He told us information he believed correct at the time of the accident." Hastings declined to elaborate. Other police sources have indicated previously, however, that Corbin was taking a prescription drug, whose side effects can cause memory loss and hallucinations. I have been unable to reach Corbin.

Here's a copy of key pages in the accident investigation.

Channel 4 broke news of this wreck in early December. Corbin was driving an unmarked city Impala about 2 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 2, when he said the car was struck by a hit-and-run vehicle. But doubts quickly arose and Chief Stuart Thomas indicated early on that he had some doubts about Corbin's account.

Corbin retired Dec. 1, before completion of the internal investigation into the accident. That investigation — a personnel review distinct from the accident investigation — has been completed, but is still pending final action by Chief Thomas. I couldn't reach him today, but Hastings,who provided the accident investigation report, said that file mirrors the accident report in most respects.

Hastings said it was customary to complete internal investigations of officers even when they retired during the process, though, as a practical matter, there's no departmental recourse after retirement for wrongdoing. Under a quirk of law, this internal investigation isn't likely to ever be open to the public. Here's why: Police personnel files are open only to the extent that they constitute a record of a suspension or termination. You can neither suspend nor terminate someone who has retired.

The chief, in theory, could issue a finding that an on-duty action of a now-retired officer merited suspension at the time, but it would raise the hackles of the Fraternal Order of Police and break custom of long-standing that such files get closed when retirements are tendered. It's unclear whether this incident prompted Corbin's retirement; he'd been making plans for it for some time, Hastings said.

The chief could choose to announce — if he found it warranted in this case — that a violation of policy had been found, but no action was taken on account of retirement. Hastings said the file was on the chief's desk, along with several other more pressing matters, and he couldn't predict when Thomas would close the books on it.

• WRECK SCENE: Police map shows were wreck occurred, on loop around softball field.

• BUSY DAY AT THE RINK: Despite the copper theft and warm weather, the River Market rink was in full blast this afternoon, with a long line waiting to buy tickets.

If not for crime news, there'd be no news at all.

Police say that sometime between 10 p.m. last night and 7 a.m. this morning, some stole 20 feet of heavy-duty copper wire that powered the ice skating rink under the River Market Pavilion 1. The wire, three inches in diameter, was said to be worth about $1,000. No suspects in the theft.

The theft did disrupt ice skating, however. A River Market spokesman said the rink closed for repairs this morning and then reopened at 1 p.m. Meetings continue on how to safeguard the rink in the future. It is scheduled to be open through Jan. 8.

I received a followup from the Little Rock Police Department yesterday on the work history of Officer Chris Johannes, who shot the driver of a car in the Park Plaza parking deck earlier this week when Johannes felt the car was backing up toward him in a threatening manner. The driver survived and has been jailed on a variety of charges. A subsequent search turned up drugs and guns in the car. Johannes had been trying to stop the car initially because a 17-year-old Cabot woman had complained to a mall security officer about men in the car asking her to join them.

I reported yesterday that Johannes had filed dozens (72, the police said) of the official reports required when an officer uses force or engages in a chase. As I mentioned yesterday, many seemed routine, often reporting takedowns necessary to handcuff drunk and belligerant people in domestic disturbances. He'd never used his gun in his seven years on the force until this week, while working off-duty as a security guard at Park Plaza mall.

I received today reports handled by internal affairs on Johannes.

These show he's been suspended three times for patrol car wrecks:

* He was suspended July 19, 2009 report for 20 days for wrecking his patrol car March 5, 2009. The report said he was on Cantrell Road "at an extremely high rate of speed. As he entered a curve, he lost control and left the roadway, striking a tree. His vehicle then spun clockwise into the treet leaving the roadway striking a utility pole, snapping it into three pieces."

* He was suspended two days for an on-duty accident June 12, 2007 in the 400 block of Schiller Street, but details of that accident weren't available.

* He was suspended one day for backing his patrol car into a concrete pillar in the parking deck at 4th and Broadway on Sept. 16, 2005.

Another wreck did not prompt a suspension. He was chasing another car that wrecked March 28, 2008 and struck a curb. The report doesn't specify the extent of damage, but said the curb was not defined and the area was not properly lighted.

Additionally, the police released eight citizen complaints against Johannes for behavior ranging from rudeness to an airport user he cited for littering; to failure to use a seatbelt on a suspect who said as a result he hit his head in the patrol car during an abrupt stop; to loss of property by people arrested. None of these resulted in a suspension so details of the investigations weren't revealed. At least two relate to his use of physical force in his job at Park Plaza.

40/29 reports that surveillance video led to the arrest of two 13-year-olds in that elementary school press box fire in Rogers. The teens are also accused of setting a vehicle on fire and graffiti and other criminal mischief.

The Little Rock police say Greg Smith, 25, of 4315 Pinecone Drive, was fatally wounded by several gunshots at 5201 Geyer Springs Road shortly after midnight this morning. He was able to tell officers he was shot by two men who fled in a silver Dodge Charger. No motive given. No arrests.