Thirteen Washington, D.C., police officers, including at least two high-ranking officials, were placed on administrative leave this week after an internal investigation found evidence of alleged misconduct tied to how the Metropolitan Police Department reported crime data. The move follows months of federal and congressional scrutiny into whether MPD leadership deliberately downgraded violent offenses to make the nation's capital look safer than it was.

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said Thursday she was unsurprised by the disciplinary action. Her office referred the matter to MPD's internal affairs division earlier this year after conducting its own review.

Pirro told reporters, as The Hill reported:

"We did an investigation starting in August, before anybody else did, because we knew that those stats were deflated."

The scheme Pirro described was not subtle. It involved systematic reclassification of serious crimes into lesser categories, a bureaucratic sleight of hand that shrank the numbers on paper while leaving victims and neighborhoods no safer.

How the numbers were allegedly cooked

Pirro laid out the mechanics in plain terms. Assault with a dangerous weapon became reckless endangerment. Burglary became unlawful entry. Theft of property became lost property.

"They actually took categories of crime like assault with a dangerous weapon and reduced it to reckless endangerment. They took burglary and reduced it to unlawful entry. They took, you know, theft of property, and reduced it to lost property."

Each of those reclassifications moves a crime from a higher statistical tier to a lower one. Stack enough of them and the city's overall violent-crime rate drops, on a spreadsheet. For the people who were assaulted, burglarized, or robbed, nothing changed except the label the government put on their suffering.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had already flagged the problem. In a December report, the committee alleged that former MPD Chief Pamela Smith pressured commanders to manipulate crime statistics to make D.C. appear safer. Smith's departure and the appointment of Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll followed.

Cases of D.C. police leaders facing termination over the statistics scandal have drawn sustained attention on Capitol Hill and inside the Justice Department.

Carroll confirms the leave, limits details

Carroll announced the administrative leave placements on Tuesday but offered few specifics. He confirmed that 13 individuals face potential disciplinary action, including possible termination, but stressed that due process must play out.

"No one was fired. Beyond that, I cannot get into any specifics of the investigation. The administrative process must be allowed to take its course."

Just The News reported that the group includes four high-level officials and that the officers have been given termination papers but have not yet been formally fired because they are entitled to an appeals process. The Justice Department previously concluded that MPD crime statistics were likely unreliable and inaccurate.

Among the high-ranking officials placed on leave, The Washington Post identified Assistant Chief LaShay Makal and Second District Commander Tatjana Savoy. These are not beat cops accused of sloppy paperwork. These are senior leaders who shaped how an entire police department categorized crime.

The pattern of leadership misconduct in police departments is not unique to D.C. A former New Haven police chief was recently arrested for allegedly stealing $85,000 from department accounts, another reminder that the people entrusted with public safety sometimes betray that trust at the highest levels.

Congressional pressure builds

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, issued a statement Tuesday making clear that Congress intends to keep digging. He demanded MPD's internal report and all related documents.

"Every single person who lives, works, or visits our nation's capital deserves a safe city, yet it's clear the American people were deliberately kept in the dark about the true crime rates in Washington."

Comer added:

"Our work is not done. I expect to receive MPD's internal report and all related documents to ensure crime data is reported accurately and that anyone responsible for manipulation is held accountable."

AP News confirmed that congressional and federal investigations found evidence that crime data may have been manipulated or misclassified to make crime rates appear lower, though neither investigation found grounds for criminal charges. Carroll described the personnel action to reporters by saying there were "allegations of misconduct that were made, and based on those allegations, members were investigated, and the outcome is related to these individuals." Comer called the leave placements "a step in the right direction."

Whether MPD will hand over the records Comer is demanding remains an open question. Carroll said the department would continue to communicate with the committee, but the interim chief's careful, legalistic tone suggests the handover may not be swift or complete.

The backdrop: Trump's federal surge and the numbers that followed

The statistics scandal carries extra political weight because of the federal intervention that preceded it. Last August, President Trump surged federal law enforcement, including National Guard troops, into Washington after arguing the capital had been overtaken by violent criminals. He wrote on Truth Social that "D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety."

Less than a month later, Trump declared the city a "crime-free zone." He later pointed to MPD data showing a 14 percent decrease in overall crime and a 39 percent drop in violent crime since his executive order took effect.

Carroll himself has cited improving trends. "Homicides, shootings and carjackings have fallen steadily since 2023," the interim chief said. He added: "My top priority continues to be fighting crime, building relationships with the community, and supporting the great work of our members who have made this city safer."

But the credibility of any crime-reduction claim depends entirely on the integrity of the underlying data. If the department was systematically reclassifying violent offenses as lesser crimes, the baseline numbers were corrupted. A 14 percent drop measured against inflated starting figures means something very different than a 14 percent drop measured against honest ones.

Incidents of police leadership misconduct, from a D.C. police lieutenant charged with soliciting a minor to chiefs in other cities caught in scandals of their own, erode the public's ability to trust law enforcement institutions at the exact moment those institutions most need credibility.

What remains unanswered

The investigation has produced leave placements and termination papers, but no criminal charges. Neither the Justice Department's probe nor the congressional review found grounds for prosecution. That gap matters. If senior officials deliberately falsified public safety records to deceive residents and policymakers, the consequences should extend beyond administrative proceedings and appeals hearings.

Pirro, for her part, praised Carroll's handling of the situation, calling the interim chief "terrific" and noting that her office referred the matter to internal affairs "to take whatever action they think is appropriate, and they're taking them."

But several questions remain. What exactly did the internal report find? What specific conduct is alleged against each of the 13 officers? And will Congress get the documents it has demanded, or will the department stonewall?

The former chief at the center of the original allegations, Pamela Smith, has not been quoted in connection with the latest developments. The committee's December report named her as the official who pressured commanders to cook the books. She left the department before Carroll took over. Whether she faces any further accountability is unclear.

Separate cases of former police chiefs walking free after serious allegations suggest that accountability at the top of law enforcement agencies is far from guaranteed, even when the evidence is damning.

The real cost of fake numbers

Crime statistics are not an abstraction. They drive patrol assignments, resource allocation, federal funding, and, most importantly, the decisions ordinary people make about where to live, work, and walk at night. When a police department downgrades an assault with a dangerous weapon to reckless endangerment, it does not just change a spreadsheet. It tells a neighborhood that the danger it faces is less serious than it actually is. It tells a city council that fewer resources are needed. It tells Congress that the capital is safer than it really was.

Thirteen officers are now on leave. Termination papers have been issued. Congressional investigators want the full internal report. The U.S. Attorney's office says it saw the problem coming months ago.

Residents of Washington, D.C., deserved honest numbers. They got a bureaucracy that chose its own reputation over the truth, and it took a federal intervention, a congressional investigation, and a new chief to even begin holding anyone responsible. If the people who cooked the books face nothing worse than a paid vacation and an appeals hearing, the message to every other department in the country is clear: the numbers are yours to play with.