The Justice Department is investigating whether D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department manipulated crime data to make crime rates appear lower, two senior law enforcement officials tell NBC News. About a week earlier, President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops in D.C. and declared a crime emergency, as city officials cite a historic drop in crime.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro’s office will lead the investigation.
News4 reported last month that the commander of MPD’s 3rd District is under investigation for allegedly manipulating crime statistics on his district. Cmdr. Michael Pulliam was placed on leave with pay and denies the allegations. The White House flagged the reporting last week.
Trump wrote on social media on Monday about an investigation.
“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 said in part.
The Washington Post was first to report that the Justice Department launched a formal probe.
The Justice Department’s investigation is expected to examine other police and city officials for any potential wrongdoing. It wasn’t immediately clear what any charges would be.
Neither the Justice Department nor the U.S. attorney’s office responded to inquiries.
What President Trump, the D.C. police union head and Mayor Bowser have said about DC crime stats
Trump has repeatedly questioned MPD crime statistics. He put News4’s reporting in the spotlight on Aug. 11, when he federalized the police department. He brought up the allegations against Pulliam at a news conference, and the White House linked to News4’s reporting in a press release titled “Yes, D.C. crime is out of control.”
D.C. Police Union Chairman Gregg Pemberton told NBC News’ Garrett Haake that he doubts the drop in crime is as large as D.C. officials are touting.
“There’s a, potentially, a drop from where we were in 2023. I think that there’s a possibility that crime has come down. But the department is reporting that in 2024, crime went down 35% — violent crime – and another 25% through August of this year. That is preposterous to suggest that cumulatively we’ve seen 60-plus percent drops in violent crime from where we were in ’23, because we’re out on the street. We know the calls we’re responding to,” he said.
In 2023, D.C. saw a crime spike we had not seen in about 20 years. Homicide and violent crime numbers spiked as we exited the COVID-19 pandemic.
D.C.’s crime drop is not happening in a vacuum. Data from the Council on Criminal Justice looking at more than three dozen cities across the country shows crime is down in all of them since 2023. Homicide is down more across the country on average than in D.C.
Chief of Police Pamela Smith was asked on Aug. 11 about Pulliam’s case and declined to comment, calling it an internal matter.
In an exclusive interview on Aug. 11, News4’s Mark Segraves asked Mayor Muriel Bowser about the investigation.
“I think that what Paul’s reporting revealed is that the chief of police had concerns about one commander, investigated all seven districts and verified that the concern was with one person. So, we are completing that investigation and we don’t believe it implicates many cases,” she said.
MPD data shows violent crime decreases across all seven police districts. The mayor says department leadership found data reporting anomalies in just one police district.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
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