© CNP / Photo by Ron Sachs / Sipa USA
(Washington, DC) – Can you trust official crime statistics? It’s not an easy question to answer. In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch have repeatedly highlighted improving numbers in terms of violent crime. Both have said there is a “perception” of crime in the city that doesn’t match with reality.
But for people who routinely take the subway — and when reading news items that include carjackings, robberies, assaults, and rapes — it’s impossible to divorce the sense that maybe the “stats on paper” don’t always tell the full story. Afterall, the phrase goes: there’s lies, damned lies, and statistics.
With President Trump ordering the federal takeover of Washington, DC’s police department — and deploying National Guard members into the capital to fight crime — the response from the left was to say that’s not necessary. People such as DC’s Mayor Muriel Bowser argued that crime numbers are improving in the nation’s capital, making such a step unneeded.
The response from Trump and other White House officials was to officially challenge the stats, and suggest they’d been manipulated. For years, critics have said police departments will classify certain crimes as misdemeanors, or change the geographic definition of a neighborhood, in order to “massage” numbers. Anyone who has watched the HBO tv program “The Wire” knows how that trend has played out in the fictional universe.
On Thursday, August 21, Trump spent part of his night on patrol with cops and military members. He was in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast DC — a traditionally Black neighborhood that’s historically had high rates of crime. Earlier in the week, the US Department of Justice — led by US Attorney Jeanine Pirro of the 77 WABC family — announced a criminal investigation into the statistics issue. The claim being the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) may have manipulated crime statistics — to make the city appear safer than it actually is.
Digging in and looking at some of the surrounding information more closely, it’s clear the concept of “juiced” stats is not so hard to believe. Commander Michael Pulliam was suspended in May of this year, for allegedly altering Third District data. There have been claims made the MPD underreported violent crimes — misclassifying stabbings and carjackings for example as lesser offenses. In 2020, MPD Sergeant Charlotte Djossou settled a lawsuit — she’d claimed her employer routinely manipulated data — and that she was retaliated against for calling it out, or “blowing the whistle”.
Similarly, the head of the DC Police Union — Gregg Pemberton — has alleged there was an official order from MPD brass to downplay crime stats.
And all the while, Trump says the crime stats are “fake” and create a “false illusion” of safe conditions. But Mayor Bowser points to the numbers, and says violent crime is down. Specifically, Mayor Bowser says violent crime hit a 30-year low when it declined 35% in 2024 — from 2023.
In the 1990s, DC experienced a significant uptick in violent crime. That was a trend we certainly observed in NYC during the “crack epidemic.” The official homicide count for DC was 482 in 1991. There was a spike in 2023 when 274 were reported. That did lead to policy changes and plenty of scrutiny.
But now, DC Police Union officials say their officers continue to face violent, demoralizing conditions on the streets of the nation’s capital. Trump has said the entire situation is unfitting of the US capital city — suggesting such a reality can spread to other areas.
Mayor Bowser and Chief Smith have pledged cooperation with the DOJ probe, expecting subpoenas. Smith noted an ongoing internal investigation into the allegations, initiated by her. The Justice Department and US Attorney’s office have not commented publicly on the investigation.
