DC Police Suspend 13 Officers in Probe of Manipulated Crime Stats

President Donald Trump warned nearly a year ago that the District of Columbia may have been reporting fake crime numbers when he deployed the National Guard to the nation's capital.

Now the Metropolitan Police Department faces a scandal. Thirteen officers have been placed on leave, with some undergoing termination, MPD Interim Chief Jeffrey Carroll said. The action stems from an ongoing probe into alleged manipulation of statistics.

"Our Internal Affairs Bureau has completed an investigation into crime reporting," Carroll said. The MPD did not immediately respond to a Tuesday request for comment. "This investigation was reported — it was referred to us earlier this year from the United States Attorney's Office."

Senior officials, including an assistant chief and district commander, are under scrutiny, according to reports.

Trump drew criticism from District officials and Democratic lawmakers for sending the Guard after he declared on Truth Social that DC gave fake crime numbers to create a false illusion of safety. He claimed Washington was the least safe city in the U.S., and perhaps the world, until the Guard arrived.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., took credit for the suspensions. "These terminations are a direct result of the Oversight Committee's work exposing dangerous efforts by DC Police leaders to artificially lower crime rates," he said in a statement.

Democrats pushed back. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., called the president's use of federal law enforcement a disproportionate overreaction and offensive. Council members on the District Council, where there are no Republicans, described Trump's behavior as off-base and extreme.

District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued the federal government for an unlawful attempt to take over the MPD and the Justice Department's Home Rule order. His office said Trump had no right to supplant then-chief Pamela Smith, calling it a hostile takeover.

"The Administration is abusing its limited, temporary authority under the Home Rule Act, infringing on the District's right to self-governance and putting the safety of DC residents and visitors at risk," Schwalb said. He described the move as the greatest threat to the District's home rule provisions.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., responded profanely a month later to the Guard's presence. "No f---ing way," he said when asked about extending the National Guard's tenure. Schumer called Trump's action an attempted distraction from the Jeffrey Epstein files saga.

MPD union boss Gregg Pemberton welcomed the news. He said his members had warned that a toxic culture of coercion, fear, and corruption left thousands of cases uninvestigated, denied victims justice, gaslit residents, and endangered public safety.

"Forensic teams were not dispatched, evidence went uncollected, detectives were never notified, and dangerous criminals walked free. All while the public was fed falsified Daily Crime Report numbers," Pemberton said.