The Metropolitan Police Division in Washington, DC, is dealing with accusations it routinely manipulates statistics on crimes comparable to stabbings, shootings and carjackings to create the looks that violent offenses are dropping.
Not less than one high-ranking officer has been suspended to this point over the disturbing allegations, which the DC Police Union has mentioned successfully mirror customary working process.
“When our members reply to the scene of a felony offense the place there’s a sufferer reporting {that a} felony occurred, inevitably there can be a lieutenant or a captain that can present up on that scene and direct these members to take a report for a lesser offense,” DC Police Union Chairman Gregg Pemberton advised NBC Washington final month.
“So as a substitute of taking a report for a capturing or a stabbing or a carjacking, they’ll order that officer to take a report for a theft or an injured particular person to the hospital or a felony assault, which isn’t the identical sort of classification.”
The division confirmed to the outlet that Michael Pulliam, commander of town’s third District, was placed on paid depart in mid-Could — and unnamed regulation enforcement sources mentioned he was being investigated internally for making questionable modifications to crime knowledge.
Pulliam allegedly falsified violent crime statistics to make them seem extra favorable for town, an accusation he denies.
President Trump final week invoked part 740 of DC’s Dwelling Rule Act to position the capital’s police power below federal management for 30 days, citing an out-of-control rise in violent crime, notably amongst youthful offenders.
“Our capital metropolis has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of untamed youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless individuals,” Trump mentioned Monday. “And we’re not going to let it occur anymore. We’re not going to take it.”
Trump mentioned the crime crackdown — which he dubbed “Liberation Day” for DC — would come with the deployment of 700 Nationwide Guard members, with a further 750 coming from GOP-led South Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia within the days to come back.
The transfer provoked swift condemnation from liberals, who rushed to left-leaning information retailers comparable to CNN and MSNBC to accuse the president of all the pieces from “federal overreach” to “an influence seize” to utilizing the federal takeover as a ploy to get late highly effective pedophile Jeffrey Epstein out of the headlines.
Outstanding Democrats together with Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries of New York Metropolis and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took to social media to parrot the MPD’s crime stats, which have been thrown into query pending the outcomes of the Pulliam investigation.
“Violent crime in Washington, DD, is at a 30-year low,” Jeffries mentioned Monday. “Donald Trump has no foundation to take over the native police division. And 0 credibility on the difficulty of regulation and order. Get misplaced.”
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Clinton posted on X final week, “As you hearken to an unhinged Trump attempt to justify deploying the Nationwide Guard in DC, right here’s actuality: Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low.”
The District of Columbia has the fourth-highest homicide charge per capita within the US, based on a February report by Rochester Institute of Know-how, seeing 265 murders — a 20-year excessive — in 2023 and 186 in 2024.
Even with the 30.7% drop in homicides between 2023 and 2024 as recorded by the MPD, DC remained the fourth worst US metropolis for murders per capita, edging out well-known murder sizzling spots like Compton, California; Newark, New Jersey and even Chicago.
In asserting the crackdown, President Trump famous that DC’s homicide charge even eclipses these of crime-challenged Mexico Metropolis and Bogota, Colombia.
The MPD’s knowledge additionally asserts that violent crime in DC dropped 35% throughout the board between 2023 (5,345 reported incidents) and 2024 (3,469 incidents).
Pemberton mentioned throughout an interview on Fox Enterprise that the police union “utterly agree[s]” with Trump’s choice to federalize town’s police power.
“Crime within the district is uncontrolled and one thing must be executed about it. This idea that crime is down is de facto an previous trope,” he mentioned.
“They’re utilizing statistics in a approach that makes it seem that crime goes down, however our rank-and-file officers know that we’re going name for armed carjackings, stabbings, robberies, shootings, homicides and the crime isn’t going anyplace.”
The Submit reached out to the union Sunday however didn’t instantly hear again.
