The nation’s capital has a serious crime problem, a fact that is, by any measure, indisputable. Unless, of course, the measure is statistics that have been manipulated to show crime in DC is not as high as it really is. In mid-May, Michael Pulliam, then-commander of the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) 3rd District, was placed on paid leave and put under investigation for allegedly altering crime statistics for his region. The Washington Free Beacon reported that the city recently settled a lawsuit with an MPD sergeant who accused the Department of deliberately misclassifying certain crimes, downgrading them to conceal the real levels of theft and certain violent crimes.
Charlotte Djossou, a former MPD sergeant, filed a lawsuit in 2020, claiming she was punished for criticizing the practice of reclassifying certain felonies to misdemeanors. Also, as internal MPD documents produced as evidence show, an MPD lieutenant, Andrew Zabavsky, came up with the idea of reclassifying “Theft” and “Shoplifting” to “Taking Property Without Right" (TPWOR). This was a new charge – and one that was not counted in the DC crime report.
Zabavsky’s morally skewed position was that thieves who stole property of low value should face less severe penalties, implying it was less of a crime – not as serious – because what was stolen wasn’t worth much. Essentially, this would mean using a sort of sliding scale to determine how serious MPD would consider a theft – and, thus, whether to include it in reports.
One could certainly make the case that such an approach discriminates against poorer victims of crime in DC.
Manipulating Crime Data
Djossou wasn’t the only one who took issue with how crime in DC was misrepresented. As reported in July by the 4 Washington news station, an NBC affiliate, the police union “claims police supervisors in the department manipulate crime data to make it appear violent crime has fallen considerably compared to last year.”
So, a picture is beginning to emerge that contradicts the claim repeatedly made by elected Democrats and media critics of President Donald Trump that the crime rate in the nation’s capital is at a 30-year low.
The well-known quote “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” has been attributed to various historical figures. Those words are widely recognized to have been first uttered by 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. No matter who first said or wrote it (some say Mark Twain did), it is eternally true. There’s always a way for an individual, special interest group, or academic institution to – using various tricks or methods – present a set of numbers that support whatever it is they are trying to prove or promote.
The other problem with crime statistics is that they rely on the participation of law enforcement agencies, for which there is no uniform standard.
Resident Reactions to Crime in DC
An additional factor is the willingness of victims or witnesses to report a crime. NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt has been looking into DC crime through the perceptions of the city’s residents. On the August 13 edition of All Things Considered, Langfitt recounted that in the U Street area, residents said crime didn’t seem that bad. However, in the predominantly black Congress Heights area, people told him crime – including robbery, burglaries, and shootings – was a big problem. Many Congress Heights residents asserted that “crime is worse than the statistics show.” The reason, they pointed out, is that many people “have given up reporting to police because they feel a lot of crimes go unpunished.”
A lot of people in that area thought it was generally a good thing to have federal agents deployed to the city, but they were not terribly optimistic about the end result.
Wariness of statistics aside, there is no denying that Washington, DC, has one of the highest homicide rates in the country. A study by the Center for Public Safety Initiatives, titled "2024 Homicide Statistics for 24 U.S. Cities," placed the capital at number four, behind St. Louis, MO, New Orleans, LA, and Detroit, MI.
Carjacking, robberies, and burglaries are also relatively common – at least in certain areas of the city. The former is a major issue. The MPD’s “heat map” of carjackings shows that one could fall victim in just about any area of the city, including central Washington.
A Losing Issue for Trump Critics
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat and frequent critic of President Trump, has been relatively restrained as the fight over crime in DC rages. Per Axios, Bowser admitted: "The fact that we have more law enforcement and presence in neighborhoods, that may be positive."
It is likely to become increasingly difficult for Democrats and others on the left to oppose the president on this issue. Since no honest observer really believes Washington is a safe city, Trump’s critics are seen by many as taking the ridiculous stance of objecting to anti-crime efforts. To rational people, that makes no sense.
It’s a choice between supporting Trump’s federal takeover of MPD and the deployment of National Guard troops, or accepting unchecked levels of crime in the very city that serves as the seat of the federal government – merely to oppose Trump. What reasonable person would choose the latter? In this instance, Trump’s political foes seem to have jumped on another losing issue that leaves them having to take an overwhelmingly unpopular stance because they refuse to credit the president with anything positive.
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