The Justice Department doesn’t like the way the Census Bureau is coming up with crime statistics.

So it has devised a “companion survey” — at extra cost, of course — that will be done by a private company called Westat.

A Justice Department spokeswoman tells me not to make too much of it. But since this is an election year and someone is suddenly fiddling with the crime stats that many voters care about when making their choice for president, I’m not going to listen to her.

The new survey is called the American Crime Survey. The one that has been conducted for many years by Census is called the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).

“The American Crime Survey is being tested as a lower-cost alternative to the NCVS, but it’s not intended as a replacement,” says a Justice Department spokesman.

Huh? So let me get this straight: Justice is adding the cost of a second survey so that it can cut the cost of the original survey, but the original survey isn’t going to be replaced.

Does Congress approve of this logic? Why was the new survey started right before the election? Was an announcement made so that people know the rules had somehow changed in the way crime was being reported?