Key Highlights
- The top police official in Washington, D. C., pressured commanders to lower classifications of crime and retaliated against those who reported spikes, creating a widespread culture of fear and distorted public data, according to a new congressional report.
- An interim report from the House Oversight Committee released on Sunday claims that outgoing Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Pamela Smith, who announced her resignation on Dec.
- 8, oversaw an unprecedented system of intervention in crime reporting. The Republican-led committee alleges that Smith, who is expected to remain in the position through the end of the year, pressured commanders on numerous occasions, and at times instructed them to downgrade offenses and avoid classifications that would appear on the city’s Daily Crime Report.
- "By pressuring her command staff to alter classifications for the sole purpose of artificially reducing crime numbers reported out to the public, Chief Smith incentivized the manipulation of crime numbers, which do not adequately account for the crime taking place in D. C.," the report reads in part.
- TRUMP PRAISES DEMOCRATIC DC MAYOR FOR WORKING WITH HIS ADMINISTRATION ON CRIME CRACKDOWN Members of the FBI and Metropolitan Police Department conduct a traffic stop near the U. S.
