President Donald Trump promised on Thursday that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) will be held accountable for providing “phony” crime statistics in Washington, D.C.
Trump said “yeah” when asked in the Oval Office if the administration will release its own crime statistics to counter the MPD’s allegedly falsified data, which shows that violent crime has decreased 26% since 2024. The MPD reportedly suspended a police commander in May and opened an investigation into whether he suspiciously manipulated data pertaining to violent crime throughout the district.
“They’re under investigation right now. They are giving us phony crime stats, just like they gave other stats in the financial world, but they’re phony crime stats,” Trump said. “And Washington, D.C., is at its worst point, and it will soon be at its best point. You will have a crime-free city. I mean, I say that. You will have, virtually, a crime-free city. And these are strong men, but the criminals are strong men and women, but these are strong men and these are people who don’t play games. We don’t play games. These are criminals we’re dealing with.”
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The MPD’s crime statistics exclude aggravated and felony assault from its database, making the decrease in violent crime appear larger than in reality. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) data, which includes aggravated and felony assault, shows that violent crime has only dropped 10% since 2024 and remained higher than in 2018.
Homicides in Washington have remained higher than pre-pandemic levels since 2020 with the exception of 2021, a year when Washington submitted incomplete data, according to Axios. The nation’s capital experienced 12% more aggravated assaults with or without a weapon in 2024 than in 2023 and 37% more than in 2022, according to the FBI’s data.
Washington’s murder rate was the fourth highest in the U.S. in 2024, which stood above New York City and Chicago, the Rochester Institute of Technology found.
Trump’s federal takeover of the MPD and the deployment of the National Guard led to the arrests of 111 individuals since the crackdown began on Monday, including 29 illegal immigrants. These individuals have been charged with homicide, firearm offenses, drug possession and lewd acts.
Violent crime in Washington has received national attention in 2025, particularly following the death of 21-year-old intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym and the brutal beating of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer Edward Coristine, also known as “Big Balls,” when he attempted to stop a carjacking.
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