A U.S. congressman is demanding the Houston Police Department open its books after an 11 News investigation that found the department wrongly reported the amount of crime in Houston.

First 11 News investigates reported that HPD didn't report the truth to the FBI or the public about crime in Houston.

And now they are making more false claims – this time to city leaders. It’s got one area politician saying enough is enough.

Is crime in your area going up or down? But more importantly, does HPD really know?

Congressman Ted Poe isn’t happy.

“Why wouldn’t the Houston Police Department use the same counting procedure as every other police department,” Rep. Poe said.

Counting what? Crime statistics, or has 11 News Investigates has found, undercounting them.

For example, for years HPD reported to state and federal officials a miraculous zero embezzlement arrests for all of Houston. The problem?

Internal police records show HPD made more than 1,000 embezzlement arrests during that same time.

“I want to make sure we’re being transparent with this issue,” Garcia said.

Now 11 News’ findings have landed HPD’s top crime analysts before the Houston City Council’s public safety committee.

So what did HPD have to say? They said they are doing everything correctly, because they have been checked out by outside agencies.

And that’s not all.

11 News: “Has the FBI audited you?”

HPD Asst. Chief Martha Montalvo: “I believe the last time I was told we were audited was is in 2001, and I believe 2006 or 2007; the early part of 2007.”

In fact, city police also claimed in a statement that, “HPD ... passes frequent audits by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their … crime reporting procedures.” 

So everything must be OK, right?

Wrong. An e-mail from the FBI to 11 News said HPD’s claims about those audits is “incorrect.”

11 News: “How do you explain if the FBI says that’s not true?”

MM: “I have no explanation for that. That’s what I was told.”

And what about HPD’S other claims?

“We’ve been audited by DPS in 2004, 2001, 2002,” Asst. Chief Montalvo had said at a public meeting.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said in the last six years they have done zero audits of HPD.

But 11 News Investigates has discovered that the Houston Police Department may have an even bigger problem on their hands: Experts say the very way the department gathers and counts many crime stats is all wrong and may be giving Houstonians a false picture of just how safe the city is.

Just ask Rep. Poe.

“You would think the police department would count arrests just like every other police department is supposed to do,” he said.

For many types of crimes when a person gets arrested, that arrest is supposed to get added to a city’s crime statistics.

But HPD said it doesn’t count a person as being arrested until they are processed or booked at the jail.

Rep. Poe said the problem is that method of counting crime is against FBI rules because, “sometimes people are arrested, and they are released” before ever arriving at a jail. In fact: “An arrest doesn’t always result in a person going to jail,” Rep. Poe said.

So Rep. Poe said doing things HPD’s way may result in lower arrest counts for all sorts of crimes and give a false picture of Houston.

“That would look like to the general population that the city is safer than it really is,” Rep. Poe said.

And crime experts agree with Rep. Poe.

“I’ve never heard of anyone just focusing on booking data, and not of all arrests,” Dr. Mike Maltz said. “It’s unheard of.”

Dr. Maltz currently consults with the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and he said what HPD is doing is incorrect.

“An incorrect interpretation of the FBI reporting procedures,” Dr. Maltz said.

“Believe me we can always improve in some crime reporting,” Houston Mayor Bill White said.

But for now, Mayor White stands by HPD’s methods.

“What we want to do is try to have the practical needs of law enforcement being taken into account,” Mayor White said. “I think we have a system that does that.”

But the congressman isn’t buying it and wants to take a deeper look at HPD’s crime stats.

“Lets have an audit, and lets see what it says,” Rep. Poe said.