D.C. Mayor Bowser skewers House for alleging police chief pressured staff to alter crime data

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is blasting the House Oversight Committee for its “biased” report accusing Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith of pressuring subordinates to fudge the city’s crime statistics.

Ms. Bowser, a Democrat, called out the committee for relying on scant evidence to take a dig at Chief Smith ahead of her resignation at the end of this month, rather than collaborating with the District about how to improve crime data collection.

“The Committee’s interim report is a disappointing rejection of that good faith approach and instead reflects a rush to judgment in order to serve a politically motivated timeline and release a report whose outcome appears to have been determined before the investigation began,” Ms. Bowser said Monday in a letter to the House panel.

The GOP-led Oversight Committee report released last week said Chief Smith would humiliate her command staff and threaten them with demotions if they did not manipulate the city’s crime stats.

The report quoted interviews with the Metropolitan Police Department’s seven district commanders and another commander who is currently suspended. It accused the chief of coercing her staff to downgrade offenses so they would be left off publicly accessible daily crime updates.

Chief Smith’s alleged bullying was intended to portray the District as less crime-ridden, the report said.

But Ms. Bowser’s letter slammed the report’s methodology, saying the House committee cherry-picked unfavorable quotes to make its desired point.

“Even a cursory review of the report reveals its prejudice: of the 22 block quotes presented as complaining about Chief Smith’s management style, 20 of them were made by only two command officials interviewed,” Ms. Bowser wrote.

The mayor also said the committee refused to speak with Chief Smith or any of the eight assistant chiefs who report to her.

Chief Smith took over the department in July 2023, as the city was experiencing a generational spike in killings, carjackings and muggings. City officials said violent crime hit a 30-year low on Chief Smith’s watch.

But President Trump called out the veracity of those statistics during his summertime crime crackdown in the nation’s capital that saw National Guard troops deployed to the District and federal agents patrolling the streets.

Mr. Trump frequently mentioned a report in which an MPD commander was accused of altering crime stats to make the city appear safer than it is. Chief Smith opened the investigation into the commander, who was suspended as the probe proceeds.

Ms. Bowser, however, said independent analyses can confirm that the District’s crime decline is real. She mentioned how hospital visits for gunshot wounds are down 33% this year, compared to last year.

The mayor said there will be consequences if any data manipulation is found to have taken place.

“The pressure public leaders should all feel to reduce crime and the fear of crime in our communities will never be an acceptable excuse to intentionally alter and downgrade crime, and any police official who believes otherwise will be held accountable,” Ms. Bowser said.