This has been a long time coming, and frankly, I kind of thought people had forgotten about it.
In August of last year, it was apparent that something hinky was going on with Washington, D.C.'s metropolitan crime statistics. especially once they started getting trotted out on a regular basis to rebut Trump's assertions about the safety of the city itself.
The Associated Press, as I reported at the time, was more than happy to debunk the bombastic president.
Hah!, they implied, Place has hardly ever been safer.
...In the case of President Trump's apparent 'assault' on the self-rule of the nation's capital, those numbers raised defensively against it have been that it is an egregious overstepping of his authority because Washington's crime rate has been getting better all this year.
THE CITY'S CRIME STATISTICS PROVE IT
Statistics rebut Trump’s claims about violent crime in Washington
TRUMP: “It’s getting worse, not getting better. It’s getting worse.”
THE FACTS: Statistics published by Washington’s Metropolitan Police contradict the president and show violent crime has dropped in Washington since a post-pandemic peak in 2023.
Which was all fine and good, until, well...first, a D.C. commander was suspended for massaging the numbers. And then he fingered an assistant chief in an equal opportunity case, and the union accused the department of deliberately falsifying crime data. It turns out they had started sniffing around and doing their own gumshoe work.
The AP got into 'fact checking' all of a sudden.
The department quietly settled a lawsuit the day Trump announced the federal takeover (go figure), and the chief who'd been accused got promoted.
All good, right?
The department's chief, Pamela Smith, resigned after Rep James Comer's congressional committee released its interim report in late December, asserting that the books had been cooked. It also excoriated the chief's tenure at the helm.
...This wasn't rogue actors; House Oversight Committee reports (Dec 2025), DOJ findings under U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, and whistleblower testimony painted a "coercive culture of fear" under former Chief Pamela A. Smith. Commanders alleged pressure from the top to suppress spikes post-2023 historic surge, lest they face retaliation. Smith denied it, resigned amid scrutiny, and touted "sharp reductions." Yet probes reviewed thousands of reports, interviewed dozens, and found stats "artificially lower"—echoing Twain's "lies, damned lies, and statistics," but weaponized against citizens who deserve unvarnished truth for safer streets.
She sounds like yet another power-hungry peach in an office she didn't belong in.
An internal affairs investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department was already in progress, and, as John noted Friday, they dropped their bombshell last Thursday.
The Metropolitan Police Department’s internal investigators have sustained accusations against at least 15 high-ranking police officials—including captains, commanders, and assistant chiefs—in a sweeping investigation into crime statistics, according to two sources familiar with the matter...
In what has to be a record for fast action, today the interim chief of the MPD announced that the department had begun termination proceedings against thirteen of the individuals named in the internal affairs report.
Some of them were closely linked to former Chief Smith.
Jeffery Carroll, interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, announced on Tuesday that 13 people are on administrative leave as part of a series of "organizational changes."
In other words, those 13 individuals — all captains or above, all in leadership — are on their way toward termination. And all of them were served termination papers in connection to the way they handled crime statistics and possibly manipulated those crime statistics to minimize the level of crime in D.C.
The police employees served termination papers are entitled to due process before being fired, under the department's general orders. None has been fired yet.
Among those given termination notices are four high-level officials. Three of those worked very closely with former Chief Pamela Smith, including her second-in-command and at least one assistant chief who oversaw patrol in half of D.C.
This really is astonishing, as far as immediate consequences for actions go.
The chief was tight-lipped about the details of the investigation itself.
...Carroll didn't say on Tuesday how long the crime data manipulation went on, how it happened or even if the group of 13 employees worked together at all. He also didn't discuss what motivated them to minimize crime statistics.
What will be really interesting is the union's position. As they were the original group doing the work to blow this wide open, one would think they would be reluctant to take up their usual adversarial stance when an officer is facing firing from the force.
And you would be right.
The union, to their great credit, wants these scummy characters not just gone, but punished.
...Before the news conference, Greggory Pemberton, the head of D.C.'s police officers union, said the command staff officials responsible for this betrayal must be held accountable.
For him, he said, it's important for the sake of the thousands of dedicated MPD officers they undermined, and for the residents of the District, who deserve honest leadership and real public safety.
Oh, bravo zulu, sir.
Reasons for the terminations (per the DC Police Union press release, May 5, 2026):
— Tekholms.aptm (@adsilva264) May 5, 2026
- Deliberate manipulation of crime data: tied directly to the MPD’s completed Internal Affairs investigation.
Systemic pattern of crime stat manipulation under former Chief Pamela Smith, including… https://t.co/4dxwhHZGiV
...Systemic pattern of crime stat manipulation under former Chief Pamela Smith, including pressuring patrol commanders to downgrade serious violent and property felonies (e.g., Assaults with a Dangerous Weapon, Robberies, Burglaries, and Motor Vehicle Thefts) to create the false appearance of falling crime rates while actual crime increased.
- Fabrication of crime statistics: internal NIBRS data showed a 1.72% increase in violent crime for 2024, contradicting the D.C. government’s claimed 28.32% decrease, as confirmed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
- Creation of a toxic culture of coercion, fear, and corruption that left thousands of cases uninvestigated, denied victims justice, and endangered public safety.
Hard to argue with that.
And what an inconscionable betrayal of her officers' and citizens' trust. That damage will not be repaired easily, if ever.
I certainly hope this take is true - that the 'systemic rot' at the heart of the D.C. police department is being 'excised out.'
The systemic rot is being excised out of the D.C. Metropolitan Police, as officials are being terminated for manipulating crime stats going back to the Biden administration. @cullystimson pic.twitter.com/YZu5muVdbv
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) May 5, 2026
A slice of the higher echelons this size is sure to leave an impression.
DC police chief seeks to fire 13 commanders and other officers in scandal over manipulation of data to minimize the seriousness of crime in the capital. @stevesthompson @jennygathright https://t.co/cfEkYyrzk0
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) May 6, 2026
Comer is still waiting in the wings for the internal affairs audit results to reach his committee, but according to reports, he's been in contact the entire time. So there will be a federal shoe yet to drop, too.
This is an awfully good start.
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