Two lawsuits from former Metropolitan Police Department officers accusing the department of suppressing violent crime numbers are getting another look during the political rumpus over President Trump’s deployment of troops to fight crime in the District of Columbia.
The Justice Department opened an investigation into the suspected manipulation of crime statistics by police brass to make the city appear less dangerous. The investigation also revived interest in the lawsuits from former officers who said they witnessed the malfeasance up close.
The lawsuits challenge the argument of the D.C. political class and congressional Democrats that violence is at a 30-year low in the city. In one lawsuit, an officer said the department downgraded violent crimes to lesser offenses. In the other, an officer said police leaders classified some homicides as accidental deaths.
The officers’ lawsuits bolster Mr. Trump’s claim that crime is out of control in the nation’s capital as he exercises federal power to help police in the city. However, a judge blocked a full takeover of the police department.
The 2020 lawsuit filed by former Sgt. Charlotte Djossou said police leaders regularly downgraded violent offenses in official reports because “districts compete against each other to get the largest reduction in the crime statistics.”
One example in her lawsuit, which was settled this month, said the case of a woman who sustained a deep cut to her face by an unknown object in 2019 was reported as “assault with a dangerous weapon” at the scene. Ms. Djossou said a police captain later changed the case to “sick person to the hospital.”
The lawsuit told of another woman who dodged a knife thrown at her during a domestic assault in 2019. The filing said Ms. Djossou thought an assault with a dangerous weapon offense was warranted, instead of the misdemeanor simple assault offense that was ultimately charged.
“I feel like they’re downgrading classifications,” Ms. Djossou told her captain, according to a police transcript of their phone call viewed by the Washington Free Beacon, which first reported on the lawsuits. “[The assailant] strangled [the victim], he ended up throwing her over the couch. She had scratches on her neck, her shirt was ripped, and then he threw a knife in her direction close to her head, she moved out of the way.”
The captain disagreed and said the knife missed the woman. He said he didn’t see any need to change the classification.
The former officer said police leaders would also classify shoplifting as “taking property without right” so they could leave it off crime reports.
The other lawsuit, filed in 2021 by former Sgt. Carlos Bundy, said the department “purposely misled the public about the homicide rates in the District of Columbia” by labeling unnatural deaths as accidental.
One of the allegedly accidental deaths cited in his court filing was a man hit in the head with a brick in 2019. Police stuck with the “accidental” death classification even though a video connected a suspect to the crime and the official autopsy called it a homicide.
Other incidents cited in the lawsuit include a man allegedly beaten to death in 2020, but the cause of death was later classified as “undetermined,” and a woman who appeared to be strangled in 2021, but police officials said she died of “unknown causes.” Mr. Bundy said autopsy reports treated both deaths as homicides.
Perhaps the most egregious example was a deadly 2021 shooting in Northwest that was captured on camera. Mr. Bundy said police officials closed the investigation the same day it was reported because they determined the killing was justifiable. He argued that the case was closed to keep the killing off the books.
“In sum, an individual was shot in broad daylight, the homicide was recorded, and MPD chose not to investigate the matter, putting the people of Washington, D.C. at risk,” the lawsuit said.
Mr. Bundy’s lawsuit is scheduled to go to mediation next year.
On Wednesday, Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said her administration would cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation into the Metropolitan Police Department’s crime reporting procedures, although she added that she believes the president’s reasons for his federal actions are subjective.
“We know that crime has gone down in our city, and it has gone down precipitously over the last two years because of the hard work changes to our public safety ecosystem, including changes to the law,” Ms. Bowser said at an unrelated press event. “We know that those facts don’t comport to what some people are saying, but those are the facts. So any questions about data from the DOJ, we will happily answer.”
The mayor and the D.C. Council, which consists almost entirely of Democrats, said they helped shepherd the District past the generational spike in killings, carjackings and muggings that ripped through the city in 2023.
Mr. Trump said the city still has some of the highest homicide and car theft rates in the nation. Those statistics were mentioned when Mr. Trump announced the surge of federal agents onto D.C. streets and the deployment of National Guard troops from the District and six Republican-led states.
In the nearly 10 days since Mr. Trump declared the crime emergency, close to 1,800 National Guard troops have begun patrolling the District. Federal authorities have racked up more than 550 arrests, including for homicide, robbery, illegal guns and drug offenses.
Mr. Trump wants Congress to allow him to extend the emergency beyond the 30-day limit, but the chances of doing so are slim because it would require the support of some Democratic lawmakers.
