Sunday, December 16, 2007

WHAT HE GOT WRONG: "I took the crime capital of America, and I turned it into the safest large city in the country."

-- Rudy Giuliani, Republican debate, Orlando, Oct. 21

Giuliani has taken a good record of reducing crime in New York and tried to make himself look like Superman. FBI statistics show that the city's crime rate had been falling for four years before he became mayor in 1994.

Furthermore, New York was hardly the "crime capital of America" when Giuliani took over. Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles had higher rates of violent crime in 1994.

The reasons for the falling New York crime rate are disputed. Giuliani can certainly claim credit, together with William J. Bratton, his first police commissioner, for improved policing methods, including the CompStat system for tracking crimes. But other factors, including demographic changes and overall improvement in the economy, also played a role.

-- Michael Dobbs

For daily truth-squadding, visit washingtonpost.com/factchecker. Read the Candidates Week series at washingtonpost.com/frontrunners.