A whistleblower has reportedly come forward to confirm claims that the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., has been manipulating crime data, a scandal that has led the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to launch its own investigation.

In August, President Donald Trump initiated a federal surge on D.C. streets, citing high crime rates despite the MPD reporting a decline.

'The Committee has obtained credible, alarming information that MPD leadership falsified crime data to deceptively show a decline in violent crime in the District.'

While Trump faces backlash from critics for taking matters into his own hands, a scandal is unfolding regarding whether the police department manipulated the data to make it appear as though crime rates have been declining.

The D.C. Police Union has long accused the MPD of manipulating crime data. Following the union's allegations, the department placed Police Commander Michael Pulliam on paid administrative leave in May. The department is investigating the claims.

"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," Gregg Pemberton, the chairman of the D.C. Police Union, previously explained to WRC-TV.

"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," Pemberton added.

RELATED: DC police commander under investigation for allegedly manipulating crime stats

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The allegations of underreported crime trace back to 2020 when MPD Sergeant Charlotte Djossou shared internal documents from two cases with WUSA.

The first case involved an alleged assault in which a man was accused of slashing a woman's face and neck with an unknown object. While the alleged attack could have been classified as an "assault with a dangerous weapon," it was instead recorded as a "simple assault." The first offense is a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while the second offense is a misdemeanor, carrying a maximum sentence of six months in jail.

The second case involved an incident where a man was accused of putting a knife to the neck of his partner. This also could have been classified as a felony assault; instead, it was reported as a misdemeanor "simple assault."

The cases were not prosecuted, according to WUSA.

"It's not OK to lie to the community about what's going on around them," Djossou told the news outlet during her 2020 interview. "That's what I saw happening."

"The commanders and the captains get promoted, and they get awards, when the crime stats are low," she remarked.

Djossou filed a lawsuit against the MPD, claiming that she had faced retaliation for disclosing the alleged underreporting to her supervisors. The lawsuit was settled in June.

Djossou stated that reporters have contacted her since, but she "can't talk to them until I retire" because she is "still a sergeant with the Metropolitan Police Department."

RELATED: Fact-check: Legacy media’s bogus defense of DC’s safe-streets narrative crumbles under scrutiny

Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

The Oversight Committee announced on August 25 that it launched an investigation into allegations of manipulated crime stats, revealing that a whistleblower had come forward.

According to the whistleblower, the manipulation was "widespread," directed by "senior MPD officials," and potentially impacts all seven patrol districts.

The Oversight Committee sent a letter to the MPD the same day, requesting information to aid its investigation, including the unredacted settlement agreement between the MPD and Djossou.

The committee has requested transcribed interviews with Pulliam and the current MPD commanders for all seven districts.

"Building on President Trump's successful efforts to restore law and order in the District of Columbia, the House Oversight Committee is carrying out its constitutional duty to oversee D.C. affairs and ensure our nation's capital is safe for all Americans," Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told Blaze News.

"The Committee has obtained credible, alarming information that MPD leadership falsified crime data to deceptively show a decline in violent crime in the District. MPD has a duty under federal law to accurately report crime to the public, and the Committee is now taking action to investigate these allegations and ensure the safety of D.C. residents and visitors is never compromised," Comer stated.

The MPD did not respond to a request for comment from WUSA.

[em]Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. [/em][em]Sign up here[/em][em]![/em]

As the nation reels from last week’s horrific school shooting in Minnesota, authorities in Florida seem to be doing everything in their power to re-traumatize a community victimized by a different mass attack. That now includes arresting one protester, apparently for leaving temporary chalk footprints in a crosswalk that has become a flashpoint in Republican efforts to expunge pro-LGBTQ messaging from the public square.

Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Transportation removed rainbow markings from a crosswalk in Orlando. There are rainbow-colored crosswalks across the country showing communities’ commitment to equality, but this one had special significance—it was painted as a memorial to the 2016 massacre at the nearby Pulse nightclub, an LGBTQ bar where 49 people were slaughtered by a gunman who expressed support for ISIS. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

The removal of the Orlando crosswalk was, supposedly, part of an effort by federal and state transportation officials to eliminate roadway “distractions.” And while it’s true that officials are now removing all sorts of colorful street art—both political and apolitical—the overriding motive seems to be a GOP attempt to use “safety” concerns as a pretext for cracking down on speech.

“Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,” US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared in July. He demanded that the nation’s governors crack down “especially” on political content in “intersections and crosswalks.” Florida’s transportation secretary, meanwhile, described the initiative as an effort to “ensure we keep our transportation facilities free & clear of political ideologies,” and his department released guidance barring “pavement surface art that is associated with social, political, or ideological messages.” Amid an uproar over the state’s actions in Orlando, Gov. Ron DeSantis was even more explicit:

We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes. t.co/AXY1qxsZNW

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) August 21, 2025

The removal of the Pulse rainbow has, unsurprisingly, sparked particular outrage. The crosswalk is “a symbol not only of LBGTQ people, but also our city’s own history, and the way our community came together in the wake of that tragedy,” Carlos Guillermo-Smith, a state lawmaker from Orlando, told the Washington Post. “Targeting rainbows is about erasing the LGBTQ community.”

Activists have fought back, using chalk to replace the paint that had been removed from the crosswalk. Authorities countered by washing away that chalk—and threatening to prosecute anyone engaged in “defacing” the street. But the anti-woke crackdown reached the absurd Friday night, after protesters began putting chalk on their shoes and leaving colorful footprints in the crosswalk. That’s when state highway patrol officers arrested Orestes Sebastian Suarez, a Georgia resident who was visiting Orlando for his birthday.

Suarez was taken into custody on felony charges “after troopers said they saw him coloring the bottom of his shoes with chalk and then walking in the crosswalk,” according to local news station WESH2. “We put some chalk down on the ground, and before we knew it, an officer was approaching us, saying, we wanna talk to you,” Suarez later told the outlet. “I identified myself, tried to do everything the correct way, and before I knew it, I was in the back of a squad car.”

A judge, apparently, was unconvinced by the allegations, declaring Saturday that there had been no probable cause for the arrest and releasing Suarez without bail as prosecutors decide whether to pursue formal charges.

“To come here and do something like this, and to be threatened with something so extreme as a felony charge for protesting and showing love to your fellow human, it’s just insane in my opinion,” Suarez told WESH2.

This post has been syndicated from Mother Jones, where it was published under this address.

New signs posted outside Pulse nightclub warn against chalking roadway

New signs have appeared outside the Pulse nightclub, warning that it’s illegal to deface the roadway or block traffic.

^{Angie Quezada (ClickOrlando | Orlando, Florida News, Local Headlines | WKMG News 6")}