Metropolitan Police Department Commander Michael Pulliam has been placed on paid administrative leave amid an investigation into allegations that crime statistics in Washington, D.C., were manipulated to understate violent crime in the city.
Pulliam is accused of altering internal crime reports within his district to falsely reflect a significant drop in violent crime compared to the prior year, according to sources and NBC News 4.
The suspension followed Pulliam filing an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant chief.
The D.C. Police Union alleges that this case reflects a broader issue, claiming officers are pressured by command staff to downgrade felony offenses.
Such actions reportedly reduce the recorded violent crime in MPD and FBI databases.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, responded to the discrepancy between official crime data and resident experiences on Wednesday in a post on X.
Referencing President Donald Trump’s calls for federal intervention in Washington, D.C., Kirk wrote, “A D.C. police commander has been suspended and is getting investigated for allegedly tweaking crime stats to make them look lower than reality.”
Pulliam was placed on paid leave in May as part of the ongoing inquiry into crime data manipulation.
Violent crime in Washington, D.C., has seen fluctuations in recent years, with some categories showing declines while others, including youth-related violence and shootings, remain high.
The city continues to face challenges in reducing violent incidents and ensuring public safety, making accurate crime data crucial for informed policy and law enforcement responses.
Trump has criticized local authorities’ handling of youth violence, particularly crimes committed by teenagers as young as 14 to 16.
On Truth Social, Trump called for prosecuting minors as adults beginning at age 14 and pledged to take federal control of the city if local officials fail to curb violence.
“Local youths and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16 years old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent citizens, knowing they will almost immediately be released,” Trump wrote.
“They are not afraid of law enforcement because nothing ever happens to them, but that’s going to change.”
Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, expressed similar concerns during an appearance on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” according to BizPac Review.
She advocated lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 14 to address rising juvenile crime and criticized the D.C. Council for being lenient.
Pirro described the youth offenders as crews rather than gangs and said, “The D.C. Council and the president are right. They need to stop coddling these offenders.”
Pirro recounted a recent violent incident involving Edward Coristine, a college intern attacked late at night while helping a friend.
She noted Coristine narrowly avoided serious injury due to the intervention of a passing officer.
“This has to end,” Pirro said.
The investigation into crime data integrity, combined with a rise in violent incidents, has reignited national discussions on law enforcement policies, juvenile crime laws and possible federal intervention in Washington, D.C.
