The Trump Justice Department is investigating whether Washington, DC’s Metropolitan Police Department manipulated crime data, according to two sources.
The investigation, which is being run by the US attorney’s office in DC, is an escalation in the city’s battle against a federal law enforcement takeover from the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump appeared to confirm the probe in a social media post, writing that “D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety. This is a very bad and dangerous thing to do, and they are under serious investigation for so doing!”
The New York Times was first to report the investigation.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the investigation.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Pamela Smith said Wednesday that they will cooperate with the probe – and expect subpoenas may be issued.
“Any questions about data from DOJ we will happily answer,” Bowser said during a school event, while maintaining that crime in the nation’s capital has gone down over the last two years.
Smith said she has not yet been contacted by DOJ about its investigation. “But, I am aware that there may be or will be subpoenas issued, I don’t know to whom, but that’s all I know at this point.”
The investigation comes following reports that an MPD commander was placed on administrative leave amid accusations that the department was falsifying crime data in one district, marking offenses as lower-level crimes than they might actually be.
Smith said MPD’s probe into the allegations of manipulating crime statistics is ongoing.
“It was an investigation that was initiated by me,” Smith said. “We have not yet completely finalized the investigation.”
Trump and other administration officials have for months slammed the capital city, alleging that its Democratic leadership has allowed violent crime to run rampant for years. When federal police descended just over a week ago, the president said it was necessary to combat what he said was skyrocketing crime rates.
City officials have pushed back on the allegation, and the MPD’s public statistics say that violent crime has dropped almost 30% from this time last year. And in January the DOJ said that in 2024, violent crime dropped 35 % from the previous year, marking the lowest it had been in more than three decades.
Asked about the federal takeover of the district’s police department and deployment of the National Guard, Smith on Wednesday said it has been “a cohesive process.”
“We have met with our federal partners. We’ve given them different areas across the city where we would like to see resources allocated. And today, I will tell you, it’s been a cohesive process. We speak every single day,” she said.
This story has been updated with comments from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Pamela Smith.
CNN’s Mary Kay Mallonee contributed to this report.
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