At least three members of the Metropolitan Police brass will reportedly be fired from their roles after they were linked to a scheme in which officials manipulated statistics to downplay crime in the District.
The department gave termination notices to Second District Commander Tatjana Savoy and former Third District Commander Michael Pulliam after they were implicated in an internal probe about data manipulation, according to a report from WRC-TV.
Another official, a police captain, also received a pink slip for their role in the plot, the station reported. Several other higher-ups were told they would be let go or disciplined for their involvement as well.
Cmdr. Pulliam was originally suspended a year ago as the department first began to look into the accusations that he downgraded certain crimes in official reports to make the city appear safer than it is.
The alleged scheme became a political lightning rod when President Trump cited Cmdr. Pulliam’s suspension to justify his summertime crime crackdown.
National Guard troops were deployed into the District during the operation, and could remain stationed in the city through the end of Mr. Trump’s term.
Metropolitan Police has yet to comment on the reported terminations.
News of the firings comes nearly a week after the Republican-led House Oversight Committee demanded Metropolitan Police turn over the findings of their completed internal investigation into the number-fudging scheme.
Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and the panel chair, gave MPD until May 12 to comply, or House Oversight “may pursue the compulsory process to compel document production.”
The Oversight Committee heavily criticized former Chief Pamela A. Smith in a December report, saying the MPD’s ex-top cop threatened her command staff with demotions to force them to fix the District’s crime numbers.
The report, which involved input from commanders of the city’s seven police districts, said Chief Smith was dead set on giving residents “the perception of low crime in the District.”
That typically meant the commanders would reclassify arrests for one of the nine violent and property crimes presented on the daily crime updates to lesser offenses, to avoid the crimes being shared publicly.
Former Chief Smith, who resigned at the end of the last year, lashed out at the House Oversight report, saying, “Never will I ever compromise my integrity for a few crime numbers.”
Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, said her prosecutors had upgraded some assault and gun charges brought to her office by Metropolitan Police because she said the defendants were undercharged.
The Office of the D.C. Inspector General also opened its own probe into accusations of MPD manipulating its crime statistics.
