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The police chief in the nation’s capital pressured subordinates to manipulate department data to artificially reduce the city’s crime rate, according to a report from a Republican-led congressional committee.
A report released Sunday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith frequently threatened, punished, and retaliated against police commanders who gave her “crime spikes.”
A separate investigation by the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro also found that a large number of MPD reports were misclassified to make crime rates appear lower than they were.
None of the investigations found grounds to charge anyone with a crime.
“However, it is up to MPD to take steps to address these underlying issues internally,” Pirro said in a statement Monday.
Smith, who is stepping down at the end of the year after two years in charge of the department, has said he does not believe any crime numbers were manipulated during his tenure.
“I have never authorized or endorsed any thought process or activities with regard to manipulation of crime numbers,” he told Fox 5 during an interview earlier this month.
Washington mayor Muriel Bowser defended Smith’s performance on Monday and accused House committee leaders of rushing to make decisions “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,” Bowser, a Democrat, wrote in a letter addressed to the House committee chair and ranking member.
According to MPD crime data, murders are down 31% this year, from 181 to 125 in 2024, with two weeks left in 2025. Bowser said independent data on hospital visits shows a 33% decline in gun injuries in the first 10 months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. Meyer accused the committee of taking critical quotes from commanders without interviewing Smith or any of the assistant chiefs.
“Even a cursory review of the report reveals its bias: Of the 22 block citations presented as complaints about Chief Smith’s management style, 20 were by only two command officers interviewed,” Bowser wrote.
The House committee said its findings are based partly on interviews with commanders from all seven D.C. patrol districts and a former commander who is currently on leave. According to the committee, commanders testified that Smith pushed for more frequent use of “intermediate” criminal charges, which are not filed as opposed to more serious charges, which must be publicly reported.
The report states, “As explained by commanders, these joint efforts are tantamount to manipulating MPD crime statistics in an effort to appear to the public as having low crime rates.”
Pirro, was appointed by republican chairman donald trumpSaid that his office reviewed approximately 6,000 police reports and after interviewing more than 50 witnesses concluded that “a large number of reports were misclassified, making the crime appear artificially lower than it was.”
Pirro’s statement said, “The exposure of these manipulated crime statistics has made it clear that President Trump has underreported crime even more than originally thought, because crime was actually higher than reported.”
Pirro’s office began its investigation in August at the height of the political confrontation between the Trump administration and the city over control of the police department. Trump claimed that violent crime is getting worse in Washington because he has ordered federal takeover of police departments.
The Republican chairman of the committee, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, said that Smith “created a culture of fear to achieve his agenda.”
“Every single person who lives in, works in, or visits the District of Columbia deserves a safe city, yet it is now clear that the American people were deliberately kept in the dark about the true crime rates in our nation’s capital,” Comer said in a statement.