(The Post Millennial)—As President Donald Trump has made the decision to place the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under federal control, Democrats have pushed back at the decision by claiming that crime in the city is down. However, a police union has claimed that the crime statistics are being manipulated to downplay violence occurring in the nation’s capital.
High-profile Democrats, including Senator Patty Murray and Hillary Clinton, have repeated a similar statistic in recent days, saying that violent crime in DC is at a “30-year low.” But the city’s police union says the numbers are misleading and that crime data is being deliberately altered to mask the extent of violence on the city’s streets.
“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 explained to reporters at NBC 4 Washington.
An MPD commander was placed on administrative leave in May after the DC Fraternal Order of Police accused officials of manipulating crime statistics.
Pemberton alleged that officers are being directed to downgrade serious offenses such as shootings, stabbings, and carjackings to lesser charges like theft or “injured person” reports to keep official numbers low.
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