MILWAUKEE (WSAU)  Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn told the Common Council yesterday that errors in reporting violent crimes were bureaucratic mistakes and not an effort to manipulate data. An internal department audit shows more than 5,300 violent assaults were misreported since 2006. The audit shows 20 percent of aggravated assault were under-reported as lesser crimes and weren’t counted in Milwaukee’s violent crime rate during the period.

Chief Flynn says the coding errors will be sent to the FBI for revision, meaning Milwaukee’s overall crime rate will be higher than was reported in the past.

The same audit found almost 1,200 minor assaults were actually over-reported as aggravated assaults during the same period.