ACT Neighbourhood Watch has decided to continue reporting crime figures that have been shown to be consistently lower than those published by ACT Policing.
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A Sunday Canberra Times comparison of the crime data in February showed dramatic inconsistencies between crime provided to Neighbourhood Watch and crime data subsequently published online by ACT Policing.
ACT Neighbourhood Watch president Judy Webster said ACT Policing had explained the differences in crime statistics, but did not elaborate.
"The issue of street-level data has been explained and ACT Neighbourhood Watch Inc will continue to work with ACT Policing to provide localised data in our communication activities," she said.
Ms Webster did not respond to questions about whether the crime figures her organisation supplied to thousands of households across Canberra had the potential to mislead the public about the real extent of crime in their suburb.
Meanwhile, an ACT Policing spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate for them to speculate about whether Neighbourhood Watch newsletters influenced perceptions of crime in Canberra suburbs.
Perceptions of crime is used as an indicator of ACT Policing's effectiveness.
In the 2014-15 purchase agreement between the ACT government and ACT police, ACT Policing was given the target of keeping perceptions of crime at, or under, the national average.
A national survey is conducted quarterly by the Social Research Centre about perceptions of crime in states and territories.
In the ACT, 2400 residents were surveyed in the 2013-2014 financial year.
An ACT Policing spokeswoman said the survey elicited public perceptions of crime and safety problems in the community.
She said the survey also collected information on community perceptions of police in terms of services provided and personal experiences of contact with the police.
The Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency contracts the conducting of the survey to the Social Research Centre.
ACT Policing said it could not provide a copy of the survey or specific details about the questions residents were asked.
"Based on previous requests received for these, it would not be granted as the release of these questions could enable other companies to use [the questions] for their own surveys," she said.
"Also, the questions are not for public release."
