Republicans in Congress accused Washington, D.C.’s police department of lowering its crime statistics by reclassifying certain incidents as lesser charges, in their latest effort to buttress President Trump’s federal takeover of law enforcement and the National Guard deployment in the capital city.
In a report published on Sunday, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee said interviews with the city police’s seven district commanders showed the department’s leadership had put an aggressive emphasis on lowering crime numbers and fed “a culture of fear, intimidation, threats and retaliation” under its police chief, Pamela A. Smith.
The committee said the department’s leadership had encouraged categorizing certain cases of assaults with deadly weapons and burglaries as less serious charges, such as “endangerment with a firearm” and unlawful entry, citing excerpts from interviews with the district commanders. Those lesser categories were excluded from the daily crime statistics reported out to the public, the report said.
The committee also interviewed an eighth commander who was put on leave this year as the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. investigated alleged altering of crime statistics.
Ms. Smith said last week that she was resigning as police chief at the end of the month, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. She said in an interview with a local Fox affiliate that she had not encouraged the manipulation of crime statistics and denied there was a problem. In any cases of manipulated data, “when it’s brought to my attention, we will hold those members accountable,” she said.
The Justice Department and the president have also heavily criticized Ms. Smith and the Metropolitan Police Department and claimed its data was altered. The accusations came as Mr. Trump faced resistance in declaring a crime emergency in the capital city in August.
His critics cited the trend of decreasing violent crime numbers in Washington and other major cities in recent years to question the president’s rationale for taking over D.C.’s police department and deploying about 2,000 National Guard troops. Mr. Trump called Washington’s crime statistics “phony” and suggested there was a conspiracy, despite having cited those numbers earlier to take credit for the city’s drop in violent crimes.
Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and the chairman of the Oversight Committee, said in a statement that Ms. Smith had “coerced staff to report artificially low crime data and cultivated a culture of fear to achieve her agenda.” He suggested that Ms. Smith’s resignation “should not be seen as a voluntary choice” but the result of her “manipulating crime statistics.”
Experts have said that while it is possible the city underreports some crime data on its public website, its official reports to the F.B.I. are still reliable and do show a decline in violent crime.
Jeff Asher, a national crime data analyst, said in an interview that the Republican-led report raised questions that the Police Department might be underreporting certain cases of crime. He said it fell short, however, of providing clear evidence of deliberate or widespread underreporting.
Mr. Asher said his own analysis of Washington’s crime data showed a mismatch between the violent crime numbers that its police department reported to the F.B.I. and the department’s public data. But the overall trend of a decline in violent crime since 2023 in Washington still holds true in the face of some discrepancies, he said.
The Metropolitan Police Department “would be well served to figure out why the underreporting is happening and what they can do to fix it,” Mr. Asher said. “But the decline is clear, well-defined and based on multiple sources.”
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington praised Ms. Smith and the city’s police officers in an emailed statement for a “precipitous decline in crime” and “their hard work and dedication.”
“I thank Chief Smith for her commitment to the safety of D.C. residents and for holding the Metropolitan Police Department to an exacting standard, and I expect no less from our next chief of police,” Ms. Bowser said. The Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
In recent months, Republican lawmakers have tried to impose stricter federal control over the capital city, especially on law enforcement, with the support of some moderate Democrats.
House lawmakers passed bills that would nullify local Washington laws such as those that gave more lenient sentencing to people younger than 25 and allowed cashless bail. Unlike other cities, the District of Columbia is subject to significant federal oversight that allows Congress to review its legislation and rewrite its laws.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington is also investigating whether city police officials falsified crime data, which has prompted criticism that the administration is using the levers of the criminal justice system to pursue the president’s political opponents.
Sara Guerrero, a spokeswoman for Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, said her Republican colleagues in the panel were “trying to use this investigation to justify President Trump’s authoritarian power grab.”
“Democrats remain committed to reducing crime by supporting cities in hiring more police and by advancing proven policies like investing in communities and combating gun violence,” she said.
Michael Gold contributed reporting.
Minho Kim reports on breaking news for The Times from Washington.
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