Oversight Committee Alleges Outgoing DC Police Chief Manipulated Crime Statistics

WASHINGTON—A Congressional committee has accused the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of pressuring her staff to downgrade the classification of crime in Washington.

The Dec. 14 interim report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform alleges that Pamela Smith, who is set to leave her post at the end of the month, manipulated public-facing crime statistics, “placing a higher priority on suppressing public reporting of crime statistics than stopping crime itself.”

The report alleges that Smith “propagated an ecosystem of fear, retaliation, and toxicity,” with commanders testifying that she would humiliate officers who did not report low crime numbers.

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) did not rule out holding a hearing on the report.

“We’re going to huddle up with the committee and see what they want to do. We’ve been referring people to the Department of Justice and haven’t had good luck seeing that be followed through,” he told reporters on Dec. 15.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told The Epoch Times he had not reviewed the document.

The MPD and the district’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.

According to the report, which draws on testimony from seven acting district commanders and one suspended district commander, Smith pushed her subordinates to lower the classification of certain crimes so they would be excluded from the department’s daily crime report, viewable at crimecards.dc.gov.

Smith announced her resignation on Dec. 8, with the departure set to take effect at the end of December.

At a press conference that same day, Smith said her decision was not motivated by congressional scrutiny or a parallel investigation by the Department of Justice.

“It’s time—I’ve had 28 years in law enforcement,” Smith said. “This is a personal decision for myself and for my family.”

The congressional committee’s report states that it was issued as an interim document because of Smith’s decision to resign, as well as “to protect witnesses from retaliation.”

In August, President Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum directing the mobilization of the National Guard “to address the epidemic of crime in our Nation’s capital.”

Critics disputed Trump’s description of Washington, citing reported drops in violent crime.

In January, the MPD announced violent crime in the district had reached a 30-year low.

As controversy over the deployment swirled, accusations of crime data manipulation surfaced on the national stage.

Gregg Pemberton, chairman of the D.C. Police Union, alleged a pattern of pressure on officers to funnel serious incidents into lighter categories.

“Instead of taking a report for a shooting or a stabbing or a carjacking, they will order that officer to take a report for a theft or an injured person to the hospital or a felony assault, which is not the same type of classification,” Pemberton told NBC4 in July, referring to commanders’ instructions to officers.

In an August statement to The Epoch Times, Smith said that “any irregularity in crime data brought to my attention will be addressed immediately.”

“I do not condone any official reclassifying criminal offenses outside the guidelines set in MPD policy. Any allegation of this behavior will be dealt with through our internal processes, which will ensure those members are held accountable,” she added.

According to the committee report, commanders testified that Smith pressured them to reclassify publicly reported offenses—for example, reclassifying assaults with a deadly weapon as less serious offenses.