Washington D.C.’s outgoing police chief didn’t just fail to stop crime. According to a new congressional report, she actively worked to hide it.
The House Oversight Committee dropped an interim report Sunday alleging that Chief Pamela Smith — who conveniently announced her resignation last week — ran a systematic operation to manipulate crime statistics. Pressure commanders. Downgrade offenses. Keep the ugly numbers off the Daily Crime Report.
And if anyone complained? Public humiliation. Demotions. A “culture of fear” designed to keep everyone in line.
This is what “progressive policing” looks like behind closed doors.
Commanders Say They Were Treated Like Criminals for Reporting Crime
The congressional investigation includes testimony from eight MPD district commanders. What they described is stunning.
One commander, identified only as “Commander E,” recounted being called to the front of a briefing to be publicly dressed down after reporting a spike in robberies:
“I had like 13 robberies in over a night period, a day period. And at the very beginning of the crime briefing, the chief said, ‘I need to see [Commander E] up front to brief first.’ So I got up there and I was basically admonished. ‘How could I let these robberies happen?’ It was embarrassing… I did feel like I did the robberies after I left. I literally was like, I swear I did not commit them.”
Read that again. A police commander was humiliated in front of colleagues — not for failing to do their job, but for accurately reporting crimes that happened in their district.
The message was clear: Don’t bring me bad numbers. I don’t care if they’re true.
The System Was Designed to Make Crime Disappear on Paper
According to the Oversight Committee report, Smith didn’t just discourage accurate reporting. She actively pressured commanders to downgrade offenses.
Robbery becomes theft. Assault becomes disorderly conduct. Serious crimes get reclassified into categories that don’t appear on the Daily Crime Report.
The public sees falling crime statistics. Politicians claim progress. Everyone congratulates themselves.
Meanwhile, actual crime continues. Victims aren’t getting justice. Communities aren’t getting protected. The numbers are a lie — but the lie looks good on a press release.
“Chief Smith incentivized the manipulation of crime numbers, which do not adequately account for the crime taking place in D.C.,” the report states.
This wasn’t incompetence. This was a deliberate system of deception.
Mayor Bowser Is Still Defending Her
Despite the damning allegations, Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a statement praising Smith’s “leadership” and “commitment to the safety of DC residents.”
“I thank Chief Smith for her commitment to the safety of DC residents and for holding the Metropolitan Police Department to an exacting standard.”
An “exacting standard” — for lying about crime statistics.
Bowser also credited Smith with D.C.’s 30% reduction in homicides this year. But here’s the thing: That reduction didn’t start until Trump deployed federal law enforcement and the National Guard to the district in August.
Several commanders told the committee that Trump’s federal surge “had been helpful in supplementing the department’s resources.” In other words, the crime reduction happened despite Smith’s leadership, not because of it.
The feds showed up, started making arrests, and suddenly crime dropped. Imagine that.
Trump’s Federal Crackdown Is What Actually Worked
Let’s give credit where it’s due.
In August, Trump issued an executive order to address D.C.’s “epidemic of crime.” He deployed FBI agents, Border Patrol officers, and National Guard troops to supplement local police.
The results speak for themselves: Over 1,000 arrests. Twelve straight days without a homicide at one point. A 30% reduction in murders.
That’s not because Pamela Smith suddenly got better at her job. It’s because the federal government stopped waiting for D.C. to fix itself and stepped in.
The commanders who testified to Congress acknowledged this. Trump’s surge provided resources they desperately needed. It worked.
What didn’t work was a police chief more concerned with optics than outcomes.
This Is What Happens When Politics Trumps Policing
Pamela Smith wasn’t running a police department. She was running a PR operation.
Her job, as she apparently saw it, wasn’t to reduce crime. It was to reduce the appearance of crime. Make the numbers look good. Keep the mayor happy. Avoid headlines that might embarrass the administration.
The actual victims? The communities living with violence? The officers trying to do their jobs honestly?
Not her priority.
This is the inevitable result of progressive criminal justice philosophy. When you’re more worried about “mass incarceration” narratives than public safety, when you treat crime statistics as a political problem rather than a public safety problem, you end up with chiefs who manipulate data instead of fighting criminals.
D.C. residents deserved better. They deserved a police chief who would tell the truth about what was happening in their city — even when that truth was uncomfortable.
Instead, they got a chief who shot the messenger and cooked the books.
Smith Resigned — But the Culture She Created Remains
Pamela Smith announced her resignation on December 8th. She’ll stay through the end of the year, then she’s gone.
Good riddance.
But her departure doesn’t fix the underlying problem. The commanders she humiliated are still there. The culture of fear she created is still there. The incentive structure that rewards manipulated statistics over honest reporting is still there.
Whoever replaces Smith will inherit a department that’s been trained to hide the truth. Rebuilding that culture — restoring trust between commanders and leadership — will take years.
And Mayor Bowser’s statement suggests she doesn’t even understand there’s a problem. She’s still praising Smith’s “exacting standard” while congressional investigators document systematic fraud.
The Real Numbers Matter — And D.C. Residents Deserve Them
Here’s the bottom line.
When police departments manipulate crime statistics, everyone suffers. Residents don’t know the real risks in their neighborhoods. Policymakers can’t make informed decisions. Resources get allocated based on fake data.
And criminals learn that the system isn’t serious about stopping them.
The House Oversight Committee is doing important work exposing this fraud. But exposure isn’t enough. There need to be consequences.
For Pamela Smith, resignation is apparently the extent of her accountability. She’ll walk away with her pension intact, probably land a consulting gig or academic position, and never answer for the lies her department told.
Meanwhile, the victims of crimes that were downgraded, hidden, or ignored? They don’t get to resign. They live with the consequences.
D.C. deserves honest crime statistics. D.C. deserves a police chief who tells the truth. And D.C. deserves accountability for everyone who participated in this deception.
Starting at the top.