D.C. has been accused by its police union of manipulating crime data to hide violent crimes. Mayor Bowser claimed the manipulation was limited to just one precinct, but this new report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform shows the problem was occurring across ALL of the district.s precincts. More claims are available here.
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The Committee’s ongoing investigation has heard testimonies from commanders that there are clear pressures placed on MPD personnel to lower the classifications of crime to present to the public the perception of low crime in the District. Specifically, there was an emphasis on the daily crime report (DCR), a public-facing dataset that only includes nine categories of felony offenses, above all other crimes discussed within the highest levels of the MPD. Chief Smith, the commanders testified, was so preoccupied with the statistics of the select crimes that were made public that she incentivized her subordinates to lower those crimes by whatever means necessary. . . .
Crime classifications—which affect reported MPD crime data—have been and are still at risk of being artificially reduced to manipulate crime statistics at the expense of public safety even after Chief Smith’s resignation. . . .
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The report is filled with discussions such as this.
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Question. So if the year-to-year analysis shows that ADWs have gone down, just throwing a number out there, 20 percent, but this was potentially the cause of more use of a felony assault, meaning you’re going to have different numbers, the ADWs [assault with a deadly weapon] will go down because potentially there’s more felony assaults, but those are not recorded. Is that correct?
Commander B (October 2025) Answer. That is correct.
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Question: Do you notice a trend towards a lot of the pressure to the nonreported numbers?
Commander A (October 2025) Answer: [Y]eah, I do think that there is a direction to get away from the ADW because, again, the focus of this executive management has been on the crime numbers. . . .
Commander B (October 2025) Answer: When I first took over the district, I would see a call come in for a burglary and then I would look on my watch commander report, and I would see that it was classified as an unlawful entry and a theft. It piqued my interest. I’d go read the report, and it would read like a burglary. It would say so and so came home after a day out and found their door open and their TV missing from their wall. That’s the elements of a burglary. . . .
