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D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser criticized an interim Home Oversight Committee report on town’s crime statistics, saying the findings have been pushed by politics quite than an entire investigation.
Fox Information Digital obtained a letter Bowser despatched on Monday to Home Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and rating member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif.
“Because the outset, my Administration has absolutely cooperated with the Home Committee on Oversight and Authorities Reform (Committee) investigation into allegations regarding publicly reported crime statistics by the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Division,” Bowser stated partly.
“That cooperation was supposed to teach the Committee in regards to the complicated topic of crime reporting, handle the general public misrepresentations about crime within the nation’s capital, and establish insurance policies and processes that may very well be improved to make sure clear, high-quality crime information. The Committee’s interim report is a disappointing rejection of that good religion strategy and as an alternative displays a rush to judgement with a view to serve a politically motivated timeline and launch a report whose consequence seems to have been decided earlier than the investigation started.”
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Mayor Muriel Bowser responded to the Home Republican report. (Getty Photos)
The committee’s 22-page report claims that outgoing Metropolitan Police Division (MPD) Chief Pamela Smith, who introduced her resignation on Dec. 8, oversaw an unprecedented system of intervention in crime reporting.
It alleges that Smith, who is anticipated to stay within the place via the top of the 12 months, pressured commanders on quite a few events, and at occasions instructed them to downgrade offenses and keep away from classifications that would seem on town’s each day crime report.
The findings, primarily based on eight transcribed interviews with MPD district commanders, describe a poisonous administration atmosphere wherein accuracy was sacrificed for optics, and profession officers confronted public humiliation or demotion for presenting Smith with unfavorable crime statistics.
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The Metropolitan Police Division in Washington, D.C., was accused of manipulating crime stats. (Getty Photos)
Bowser defended Smith in her letter as an integral determine in serving to scale back a 2023 spike in violent crime and homicides. She additionally famous that the committee didn’t interview Smith or any of MPD’s assistant chiefs earlier than issuing its findings.
“Even a cursory overview of the report reveals its prejudice: of the 22 block quotes offered as complaining about Chief Smith’s administration model, 20 of them have been made by solely two command officers interviewed,” Bowser wrote.
The Home Oversight investigation unfolded in opposition to the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s federal crime crackdown within the nation’s capital. In August, Trump issued an govt order to handle the “epidemic of crime” within the district and deployed federal legislation enforcement personnel, together with the Nationwide Guard.
District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith attends a remembrance and reopening ceremony on the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum on Might 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photos)
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Bowser stated the district is dedicated to publishing correct, high-quality crime statistics.
“The stress public leaders ought to all really feel to cut back crime and the concern of crime in our communities won’t ever be a suitable excuse to deliberately alter and downgrade crime, and any police official who believes in any other case will probably be held accountable,” she added.
