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DC mayor responds to police suspensions over alleged crime stat manipulation

D.C.’s mayor said the inspector general is “concluding” his investigation into alleged manipulation of crime data as 13 high-ranking officials with D.C. police face potential firings over the accusations.

Both the police department’s Internal Affairs Division and the D.C. Office of the Inspector General probed alleged manipulation of crime statistics within the city.

“We have been trying to get all of the information for months, and I think we have one piece of the puzzle, the IAD,” Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters after a Destination D.C. event Wednesday. “The next piece of the puzzle will be the inspector general’s report.”

The inspector general began looking into the crime statistics earlier this year, after a report from the House Oversight Committee accused then-police Chief Pamela Smith of massaging crime data to make the city look safer.

Bowser said the inspector general informed her in a briefing last week the “final report was concluding,” and a draft copy would be sent to D.C. police before being made public.

When asked if these 13 officers were working alone or being told to change numbers, Bowser said, “I’m going to leave that commentary to MPD in talking about individuals, we will look for systematic problems that, in my estimation, should have caught any individual problems.”

Bowser said she had “scanned” the internal report but said she would not comment on the findings.

Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll also said exact details of the officials’ misconduct could not be shared when he announced the 13 suspensions during a news conference Tuesday.

“I guess MPD will talk about the categories of crime that experience changes,” Bowser said. “What is going to be really key, and I suspect it’s in all of these recommendations for termination, is if this is deliberate, if it is meant to make the official look good and not show what’s actually happening. There are repercussions for that.”

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