Mayor James Solomon says an internal audit uncovered thousands of criminal incidents that were never properly entered into state crime databases, raising questions about crime statistics reported during the Fulop administration.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Jersey City officials say a review of police records found that more than 3,250 criminal incidents between 2021 and 2024 were not properly reported to state and federal crime databases during former Mayor Steven Fulop’s administration.
The findings, released Tuesday by Democrat Mayor James Solomon and Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose, stem from an internal audit of the Jersey City Police Department’s reporting practices. According to the review, at least 3,251 criminal cases were omitted from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the nationwide crime reporting platform used by law enforcement agencies across the country.
It has been claimed that this is happening in cities across America to downplay violence and crime and was even dismmissed by many on the left as a right-wing conspiracy theory.
Now, the claim is coming from within.
Key Points
• Jersey City officials say 3,251 criminal incidents from 2021 through 2024 were not properly reported to NIBRS.
• Mayor James Solomon says pre-2025 crime statistics should no longer be used as a benchmark.
• Former Mayor Steven Fulop has dismissed the findings as politically motivated and says violent crime reporting remained accurate.
“Transparency is only meaningful if the data behind it is trustworthy,” Solomon said while announcing the audit findings.
“And a new era of public safety transparency can only happen if we are honest and accurate about past statistics. Jersey City residents deserve accurate information, and we’re committed to fixing and building systems that deliver it.”
According to city officials, the majority of the unreported incidents involved lower-level offenses and administrative reporting errors rather than violent crimes. The audit found that homicides and other major violent offenses were generally reported accurately throughout the period.
Questions raised about previous crime claims
The findings have reignited debate over public safety claims frequently made during Fulop’s tenure.
For years, Fulop and his administration pointed to declining crime rates as evidence that Jersey City had become one of the safest large cities in America. Officials regularly highlighted reductions in shootings and homicides, at times describing Jersey City as having one of the lowest homicide rates among major cities in the country.
The Solomon administration now says those statistics should be viewed with caution.
“Pre-2025 crime figures should not be used as a benchmark for evaluating future crime trends,” the city said in announcing the audit.
Officials added that 2025 data will serve as the baseline for future crime comparisons because reporting procedures have since been updated.
Audit found reporting breakdowns
According to the review, the missing incidents were linked to several reporting failures, including fragmented workflows, inaccurate initial coding of incidents, failures to update offense classifications and inconsistent tracking of supplemental police reports.
The city said those deficiencies accumulated over several years and resulted in thousands of incidents not being properly entered into NIBRS.
“These findings reflect issues that built up over years,” Ambrose said.
“What matters now is that we’ve identified the problems, we’ve brought in experts to help us fix them, and we’re putting the right systems and staffing in place to get this right going forward.”
He added that residents “deserve transparent, accurate information about the safety of their city and we are going to provide that to them.”
Fulop rejects criticism
Former Mayor Steven Fulop has pushed back against the audit’s implications, arguing the findings are being used for political purposes.
Fulop has maintained that violent crime reporting remained accurate during his administration and that the audit primarily identified paperwork and reporting issues involving lower-level incidents rather than serious violent offenses.
The dispute has quickly become one of the first major political clashes between the new Solomon administration and Fulop, who built much of his public safety messaging around declining crime rates.
State Police review underway
In response to the findings, Ambrose invited the New Jersey State Police to review Jersey City’s crime reporting procedures.
The city said it is adding personnel dedicated to NIBRS reporting, providing additional training for officers responsible for coding and classifying incidents, strengthening supervisory oversight and evaluating upgrades to records management systems.
Officials also announced plans to launch a public crime dashboard in the coming weeks as part of Solomon’s broader “JC IMPACT” initiative aimed at increasing transparency and accountability within city government.
The audit’s findings are expected to fuel continued debate over how crime statistics were reported during one of the most politically significant periods in Jersey City’s recent history.