Federal agents were deployed in D.C. under a public safety justification despite violent crime being at a 30-year low. A committee letter cites a whistleblower alleging widespread manipulation of Metropolitan Police Department crime statistics at the direction of senior officials. A District Commander, Michael Pulliam, was suspended amid those allegations, and the committee has sought documents and transcribed interviews with commanders from all seven patrol districts. The president has called FBI statistics fake and indicated interest in using D.C. as a test for interventions in other cities, threatened action in Baltimore, and signaled potential targeting of other major cities.
"A whistleblower with direct knowledge of internal MPD operations and crime data discussions also informed the Committee that crime statistics were allegedly manipulated on a widespread basis and at the direction of senior MPD officials," Comer wrote in a letter to Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith. "While MPD took action against a single District Commander, the issue potentially affects all seven patrol districts, as MPD leadership allegedly instructed Commanders to routinely downgrade charges to artificially lower District crime statistics." Zoom in: Comer noted in his letter that D.C. police had suspended a commander, Michael Pulliam, for allegedly manipulating crime statistics.
"Media accounts of the incident additionally noted that '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,' Comer wrote. His committee is requesting documents and transcribed interviews with the commanders of each of the seven patrol districts in D.C., including with Pulliam. Zoom out: Trump has called the statistics released by the FBI " fake" to justify federal intervention in D.C. and his plans to intervene in other cities."
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