The D.C. Office of the Inspector General said the Metropolitan Police Department suffered serious issues in how it collected and verified crime data, the latest development in a saga that started with the White House accusing police of fudging the numbers to make the city appear safer than it is.
The OIG’s report did not address whether the “prolonged, systemic breakdown of its internal control system for crime classification and reporting” was intentional, but the fallout from the crime data manipulation scandal was severe.
In May, an assistant chief and a district commander were among the 19 officers placed on leave for being linked to crime data misconduct following an internal report from Metropolitan Police.
The department’s probe said a “culture of fear” created by former Police Chief Pamela A. Smith may have contributed to officers’ willingness to downgrade some crimes to lesser offenses. That jibed with a House Oversight investigation published late last year that also blamed the former top cop for the data manipulation.
Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday said her administration’s focus was on correcting the reporting procedures, rather than trying to condemn anyone for the crime data issues.
“I’ve called on [the OIG] many times in the last 12 years to look at management processes, to look for controls in the environment, and to make recommendations around those controls,” she said at a press event. “When that happens, and when that is robust, we know that individual behavior is less incentivized” to stick to the proper rules.
The OIG’s report said the problem persisted for a decade between 2015-25 after Metropolitan Police disbanded a unit dedicated to fact-checking the data.
Without the auditing unit in place, the OIG said the department had no barriers on who could log crime reports and allowed crime reports with incomplete narratives or classification errors to be added into the system.
“No single failure caused the others, but together they reflect the absence of a functioning, cohesive internal control framework — one in which the parts were designed to work together and leadership had visibility into whether they did,” the OIG’s report said.
The report made several recommendations to the department, including establishing an independent crime report review team, limiting who has access to the records management system, updating policies around how crimes are classified and ensuring the auditing of crime reports.
Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said the department accepted each of those recommendations and has already begun implementing some of them.
The report said it conducted 30 voluntary interviews with police brass, patrol officers and support staff about the culture at the department, in particular transparency at Metropolitan Police and communication across divisions.
The OIG said sworn officers and civilian employees said the department was marked by “limited trust” and “siloed communication,” as well as a general “reluctance to raise concerns.”
The report said this culture affected MPD’s ability to understand expectations related to crime reporting and fix issues when they arose.
While the OIG did not accuse the department of plotting to alter crime data, it did mention that officers and staffers who were interviewed “described instances in which supervisory personnel influenced crime classifications to align with anticipated or desired crime trends.”
The report added, “Personnel reported that MPD did not maintain a reliable means for employees to report suspected wrongdoing anonymously and without fear of reprisal; this is inconsistent with MPD’s stated commitment to impartial investigation of misconduct and to empowering employees to influence positive change.”
In Metropolitan Police’s internal report, multiple officers interviewed said former Chief Smith’s intimidating leadership style may have influenced subordinates to manipulate crime data.
The officers said Chief Smith would bully command staff during meetings if their district saw upticks in crime and would occasionally demote them if the problem persisted.
However, the internal report did not accuse Chief Smith of directing officials to lower the numbers to protect the department’s image. MPD investigators found that crimes such as theft, burglary and assault with a dangerous weapon were recategorized at times across the city’s seven police districts.
The reliability of Metropolitan Police’s crime numbers became a national story during President Trump’s crime crackdown in the District last summer.
Mr. Trump referenced the suspension of former 3rd District Commander Michael Pulliam over crime data manipulation allegations to argue violence and disorder were worse than police statistics let on.
The president held up the former commander’s suspension to deploy thousands of National Guard troops to the District and have federal agents embed with Metropolitan Police patrols.
Homicides, robberies and carjackings have all seen steep declines this year, according to police data, but violent crime overall is up 3% year over year because of a rise in weapon assaults.
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