Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on Monday lambasted a congressional report that accuses the D.C. police chief of incentivizing the manipulation of crime statistics, describing it in a letter to the leaders of the House Oversight Committee as “a rush to judgement to serve a politically motivated timeline.”
In the letter, Bowser offered her strongest rebuke yet of Republican-led jabs at the leadership of Pamela A. Smith, who last week announced she would be stepping down as chief at the end of the year.
“Rather than letting the investigation proceed and risk losing the opportunity for attention grabbing headlines if it were released after Chief Smith’s retirement after nearly three decades of law enforcement service, the Committee stooped to ad hominem attacks using cherry-picked quotes without providing additional relevant context,” Bowser wrote in a letter reviewed by The Washington Post.
Though the investigation remains ongoing, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee published an “interim report” over the weekend with the stated goals of adding context to Smith’s resignation decision, informing residents and protecting witnesses from retaliation. The report arrived on the heels of a leaked Justice Department memo that portrayed Smith’s leadership in a similarly harsh light and claimed there were “data integrity issues” with the city’s crime stats.
Both the congressional and Justice department probes began in August, the same month President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C. streets and temporarily seized control of the police department. Trump justified his declaration of a local emergency in part by casting doubt on the accuracy of statistics that show violent crime dropping to historically low levels since 2023. The national spotlight revived attention to complaints within the department about crime data that predate Smith’s tenure.
Neither investigation has accused the chief of unlawful behavior. Neither appears to have conducted a detailed review of crime reports by reinterviewing witnesses or examining investigative work. And both have so far offered scant specifics about how much or whether the alleged toxic work environment Smith fostered affected overall crime data trends.
In a statement Monday, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, whose office is overseeing the Justice Department investigation, said a “significant number of reports” had been misclassified, making crime appear artificially lower.
“The conduct here does not rise to the level of a criminal charge. However, it is up to MPD to take steps to internally address these underlying issues,” said Pirro, using the initials for Metropolitan Police Department, the force’s official name.
Experts previously interviewed by The Post say classifying crimes is an often-subjective process, and that a disagreement in a classification doesn’t necessarily point to nefarious motivations. Smith has reiterated that crime statistics have not been manipulated under her leadership and described her resignation as unrelated to federal scrutiny, rooted instead in a desire to spend more time with family.
This year, the city has endured a drumbeat of incursions into its already limited right to self-rule — both from the president and a GOP-led Congress eager to make good on his pledge of aggressive oversight, especially on the subjects of crime and criminal justice. Bowser has walked a delicate line, striving to emphasize shared priorities with the Trump administration and describing the surge of federal law enforcement as a welcome boost of personnel power.
Bowser’s administration has “fully cooperated” with the committee during the investigative process, she wrote in her letter, addressed to Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California). The report’s rushed publication “is a disappointing rejection of that good faith approach,” she continued.
A spokesperson for Oversight Committee Democrats previously accused Republican committee members of using the investigation to “justify President Trump’s authoritarian power grab.”
Bowser chose Smith in July 2023. She was confirmed by the council later that year, when the city was gripped by a generational spike in violence.
“She was hired to help MPD look anew at its crime fighting strategies,” Bowser wrote Monday. “In each of her two years in leadership, crime has dropped precipitously in line with changes in our public safety ecosystem and national trends.”
Based on interviews with all seven current D.C. police district commanders plus one who’s on leave, the House Oversight Committee report painted Smith as a punitive leader quick to berate those who bring her “bad news.” Smith “propagated an ecosystem of fear, retaliation, and toxicity” in which low crime statistics were prized above all else and to be achieved “by any means necessary,” the report claims.
“Notably, the Committee elected not to interview Chief Smith or any of the Department’s assistant chiefs, a step that certainly would have provided more context and fairness to its work and making it all but impossible to address anecdotes the interim report portrays as facts,” Bowser wrote in her letter. The report, she added, appears to rest heavily on the interviews of two commanders. The commanders are unnamed, a move the committee described as necessary to shield them from potential retaliation.
A spokesman for House Oversight Republicans responded forcefully Monday to Bowser’s letter, again criticizing the city’s police chief.
“The courageous and respected commanders of our nation’s capital didn’t mince words. Their testimony speaks for itself: Chief Smith’s conduct is indefensible, and she is wholly unfit to lead the MPD,” the spokesman said in a statement to The Post.
In her letter, Bowser reiterated her support of Smith and her commitment to accurate crime figures.
“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,” she wrote, “and any police official who believes otherwise will be held accountable.”
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