Trump says DC police sharing ‘phony data’

President Donald Trump said his administration is investigating “phony” data published by the police department in Washington, D.C., as Democrats cite a supposed drop in violent crime to challenge his takeover of the capital.

While addressing reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the White House would share its own data to counter numbers from the Metropolitan Police showing a 26% decrease in violent crime this year.

“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.

Police cover-up

The accuracy of the police data has been questioned by some including the police union, which supports Trump’s federal crackdown.

Earlier this year, a police commander in the department was placed on paid leave and “told he was under investigation for questionable changes to crime data,” NBC4 Washington reported.

The Fraternal Order of Police has accused the city’s police department of fudging the numbers to create a false sense of safety, with chairman Gregg Pemberton rejecting the published stats as “preposterous.”

“When our members respond to the scene of a felony offense where there is a victim reporting that a felony occurred, inevitably there will be a lieutenant or a captain that will show up on that scene and direct those members to take a report for a lesser offense,” Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Gregg Pemberton said. “So, instead of taking a report for a shooting or a stabbing or a carjacking, they will order that officer to take a report for a theft or an injured person to the hospital or a felony assault, which is not the same type of classification.”

Crime under control?

Democrats have said crime is under control and that Trump is creating a false pretext for an “authoritarian” takeover of D.C.

But others say Trump’s critics are out of touch with a very real problem that has the city’s residents walking the streets in fear.

The Rochester Institute of Technology found that D.C. was the fourth deadliest U.S. city last year. The murder rate was 27 per 100,000, making it more dangerous than places like New York, Atlanta, and Chicago.

Over 100 arrests

More than 100 people have been arrested since Trump launched his crime-fighting initiative, which has brought 800 National Guard troops to the city as Trump federalizes the local police.

Trump’s takeover was triggered by the mob beatdown of a former DOGE staffer by a group of teenaged carjackers, just one brutal attack in a city that has already had over 100 homicides this year.

“And Washington, D.C., is at its worst point, and it will soon be at its best point,” Trump said.

He added, “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.”