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D.C. Police Chief Accused of Manipulating Crime Data
A House report alleges D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith pressured commanders to manipulate crime data, though no criminal charges were filed, drawing defenses from the mayor and the chief.
DC Police chief by DVIDS
The police chief in the nation’s capital pressured subordinates to manipulate department data to artificially lower the city’s crime rates, according to a report released Sunday by the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The report found that Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith often threatened, punished and retaliated against police commanders who presented her with “spikes in crime.” It concluded that a significant number of police reports had been misclassified to make crime rates appear lower than they were.
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A separate investigation by U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office also found that police reports had been misclassified in a way that lowered reported crime. Pirro’s office began its investigation in August at the height of a political showdown between Republican President Trump’s administration and the city over control of the police department. Trump had claimed violent crime in Washington was getting worse as he ordered a federal takeover of the department.
Neither investigation found grounds for charging anyone with a crime.
“However, it is up to MPD to take steps to internally address these underlying issues,” Pirro said Monday. She said her office reviewed nearly 6,000 police reports and interviewed more than 50 witnesses before concluding that “a significant number of reports had been misclassified, making crime appear artificially lower than it was.”
Smith, who is stepping down at the end of the year after two years in charge of the department, has denied any wrongdoing.
“I have never and will never authorize or even support any thought processes or activities with regards to crime numbers being manipulated,” she told Fox 5 earlier this month. She has also said she doesn’t believe crime numbers were manipulated during her tenure.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday defended Smith’s performance and accused House committee leaders of rushing to judgment “in order to serve a politically motivated timeline.”
“It is my expectation that the crime statistics we publish and rely on are accurate and of the highest quality possible,” Bowser wrote in a letter to the committee’s chair and ranking member. She also said independent data on hospital visits shows a 33% drop in firearm injuries for the first 10 months of 2025 compared to the same period of 2024.
Police department data show homicides are down 31% this year, from 181 in 2024 to 125 with two weeks remaining in 2025. Bowser accused the committee of cherry-picking comments from commanders and noted that of the 22 block quotes criticizing Smith’s management style, 20 came from only two officials.
The committee’s report said commanders described efforts that “amounted to manipulating MPD crime statistics in an effort to show lowered rates of crime to the public.”
Pirro, who was appointed by Trump, said in a statement that “the uncovering of these manipulated crime statistics makes clear that President Trump has reduced crime even more than originally thought, since crimes were actually higher than reported.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said Smith “cultivated a culture of fear to achieve her agenda.”
“Every single person who lives, works, or visits the District of Columbia deserves a safe city, yet it’s now clear the American people were deliberately kept in the dark about the true crime rates in our nation’s capital,” Comer said in a statement.
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Editor’s Note:
This article summarizes findings from a congressional report and a separate federal investigation regarding the handling of crime data in Washington, D.C. It reflects ongoing debates about transparency and public trust in law enforcement, and all information is based on official statements and released documents.
