DC police commander suspended, accused of changing crime statistics

[Ptarmigan]

DC police commander suspended, accused of changing crime statistics
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-police-commander-suspended-crime-statistics/3959566/

A D.C. police commander is under investigation for allegedly making changes to crime statistics in his district.

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed Michael Pulliam was placed on paid administrative leave in mid-May. That happened just a week after Pulliam filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant chief and the police union accused the department of deliberately falsifying crime data, according to three law enforcement sources familiar with the complaint.

The union claims police supervisors in the department manipulate crime data to make it appear violent crime has fallen considerably compared to last year.

Pulliam — the former commander of the 3rd District that patrols Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights — was placed on leave with pay and told he was under investigation for questionable changes to crime data, five law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told News4.

The DC crime statistics is bogus.

[SVPete]

Pulliam's data falsification was mentioned several days ago in a couple of DUmpster threads, possibly before he was actually suspended.

The very important thing in the article, beyond the guy getting caught and suspended is this: "The union claims police supervisors in the department manipulate crime data to make it appear violent crime has fallen considerably compared to last year."

IOW, Pulliam was one of several falsifying data, and the WashDC PD and mayor+minions must not be allowed to make him the token fall guy.

[DLR Pyro]

reminds me of the data manipulation that was going on 5 years ago at hospitals that were reporting covid deaths on patients who died with covid, but not necessarily from covid, such as a traffic accident death or suicide.

[SVPete]

A bit farther down the NBC article:

“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.”

The police department's command staff is focusing on two categories in order to get the numbers to fall, Pemberton said: armed with a dangerous weapon and injured person to the hospital.

“When management officials are directing officers to take reports for felony assault, or if they're going back into police databases and changing offenses to felony assault, felony assault is not a category of crime that's listed on the department's daily crime stats,” Pemberton said. “It's also not something that's a requirement of the FBI's uniform crime reporting program. So, by changing criminal offenses from, for example, ADW bat or ADW gun to felony assault, that would avoid both the MPD and the FBI from reporting that as a part one or a felony offense.”