By Steve Neavling
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Washington, D.C., police manipulated crime statistics to make the city appear safer, NBC News reports, citing two senior law enforcement officials.
The probe is being led by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office and follows the suspension of Metropolitan Police Commander Michael Pulliam, who was placed on leave in May amid allegations he altered crime data. Pulliam has denied wrongdoing.
The investigation is expected to go beyond Pulliam, examining whether other police or city officials were involved. The Justice Department has not said what charges could result.
President Trump seized on the inquiry Monday, writing without evidence on Truth Social that “D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety. This is a very bad and dangerous thing to do, and they are under serious investigation for so doing!” He added, “Until 4 days ago, Washington, D.C., was the most unsafe ‘city’ in the United States, and perhaps the World. Now, in just a short period of time, it is perhaps the safest, and getting better every single hour!” Later, Trump told reporters, “They are giving us phony crime stats.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser has cited police data showing violent crime down 26% compared with last year to argue that Trump’s federal takeover of the department is unnecessary. But Gregg Pemberton, chairman of the D.C. Police Union, said those numbers don’t match what officers see.
“I think there are some concerns about the accuracy of the numbers,” Pemberton said. “I think that there’s a possibility that crime has come down, but not nearly by the amount shown in the data, which is preposterous. I have a real hard time believing that the numbers are down that much. What we know, what our members know, is that we go call to call to call out on the streets at night, going from robbery to carjacking to stabbing to shooting, and we just know that crime is ubiquitous, and it’s all in every quadrant of the city. So to have people tell us, ‘well, crime is down, you shouldn’t be worried about that,’ that’s not the reality that we feel on the streets.”
Neither the Justice Department nor the police department responded to requests for comment.
