House Republicans Seek Review of D.C. Crime Data

A House committee is investigating the local police department in Washington, D.C., adding to the efforts by the Trump administration to challenge city officials’ claims that crime has been falling for two years.

The dispute over the city’s crime statistics has grown out of President Trump’s takeover of law enforcement in the nation’s capital, sending National Guard troops, hundreds of federal agents, and cops on expanded street patrols to make more arrests.

City officials have denounced the decision as a heavy-handed means of trying to fix crime problems that were already getting better. The president and his allies have declared the takeover a success, arguing crime has dropped in the two weeks since the takeover began.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the city’s crime figures, according to people familiar with the matter. Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to the Metropolitan Police Department on Monday demanding answers to the same questions, as well as interviews with all seven of the city’s district police commanders.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has said there was an internal investigation into one district commander, but that it appeared to be limited to that area and did not reflect a more widespread problem with the city’s crime data.

In his letter to the city’s police chief, Mr. Comer said a whistle-blower had told the committee about “allegations that crime statistics were manipulated on a widespread basis.”

The head of the local police union has also claimed, amid a litany of complaints about the department’s senior leadership, that crimes have been deliberately undercounted.

It is not unusual for local police departments to face criticism from the police union about how crime figures are tabulated, but in Washington, that complaint has been amplified in the middle of a heated debate about the use of federal power to take over local law enforcement.