The Free Beacon: DC has been faking crime stats for years.

A DC Police Sergeant Exposed Her Superiors for Misclassifying Crimes To Make Stats Look Low. The City Just Quietly Settled Her Lawsuit.

Records revealed in the suit from police sergeant Charlotte Djossou showed that department leadership directed subordinates to file theft and violent crimes as lower-level offenses

Alana Goodman
August 14, 2025

The District of Columbia has quietly settled a lawsuit from a sergeant who accused Metropolitan Police Department leaders of misclassifying offenses to deflate the district's crime statistics, court records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. Police brass repeatedly told officers to downgrade theft cases, knife attacks, and violent assaults to lesser offenses, according to internal MPD emails, depositions, and phone call transcripts the Free Beacon reviewed.

Former MPD sergeant Charlotte Djossou sued the department in 2020, alleging that police leadership punished her for speaking out against the scheme. Djossou, who joined the force after serving honorably in Iraq, accused MPD brass of attempting to "distort crime statistics" by "downgrading a number of felonies to misdemeanors, so that there will be 'fewer' felonies in the statistics." She also provided records showing that police leaders explicitly instructed their subordinates to underclassify certain instances of theft to keep them out of the crime stats the city reports to the public.

The lawsuit, as well as the city's decision to settle, calls into question the prevailing narrative presented in mainstream media outlets as President Donald Trump carries out a D.C. crime crackdown. The New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico have all cited data from the Metropolitan Police Department to contend that D.C. crime is low and Trump's crackdown is unnecessary. That coverage did not mention whistleblowers like Djossou, nor did it disclose that a D.C. police commander is currently on leave after the city's police union accused him of manipulating crime stats.

Though elements of Djossou's case have previously been reported, the settlement has not. Neither have several exhibits the legal proceedings brought to light, including a 2022 deposition of MPD commander Randy Griffin. At the time of the events in question, Griffin oversaw D.C's Fourth District in the northernmost part of the city. He confirmed in his deposition that he tasked a police captain, Franklin Porter, with finding "a solution for the theft problem, which was driving up the district's statistics" in April 2018.

Porter's solution, devised alongside former MPD lieutenant Andrew Zabavsky, was to use the "Taking Property Without Right" (TPWOR) classification instead of "Shoplifting" or "Theft," Griffin confirmed in the deposition. Court records show that Zabavsky--currently serving a 48-month sentence for covering up an unrelated murder case--"acknowledged this was done because TPWOR reports are not tracked in the D.C. Crime Report."

I mentioned Carl Cannon's reporting that cops are told to accept someone's word for it that their knife would or gunshot wound was "just an accident" so they don't have to record a felony assault.

Even though it has been reported again and again that a high-ranking officer in the DC police brass was suspended for faking crime statistics, the Gaslight Media has a fever, and the only cure is repeating these fake statistics over and over and over.

Without ever once conceding that the numbers are fake or even unreliable. Or even simply challenged.

Liberal cable networks CNN and MSNBC have been citing fabricated statistics in an attempt to debunk President Trump's claims on Monday about rampant crime in Washington, D.C. Over the past 24 hours, these two networks have cited the dubious statistics over 70 times, while refusing to acknowledge that a D.C. police official was suspended for tampering with those stats just months ago.

Summary of findings:

Over 24 hours, CNN and MSNBC cited manipulated D.C. crime statistics 73 times.
Conservative CNN contributor Scott Jennings was the only individual on either network to mention that a police commander was suspended for allegedly falsifying those statistics.
Across both networks, January 6, 2021 was brought up 31 times.

In Mid-may, D.C. police commander Michael Pulliam was put on administrative leave after the police union accused his department of intentionally manipulating crime data. As Paul Wagner at NBC News Washington explained: "The union claims police supervisors in the department manipulate crime data to make it appear violent crime has fallen considerably compared to last year."

But since Monday, CNN and MSNBC have continuously cited those contaminated data, in response to President Trump announced that the federal government would be assuming control of policing in the District.

MRC analysts examined the first 24 hours of regular weekday coverage on CNN and MSNBC after Trump's Monday announcement, from 11:00 a.m. on August 11 to 10:59 a.m. on August 12. Analysts identified 73 instances in which anchors, guests, and reporters cited the manipulated crime statistics for which Pulliam was suspended. MSNBC was responsible for 44 such instances, while CNN aired the remaining 29.

The only individual on either network who acknowledged the dubious origin of the data was conservative CNN contributor Scott Jennings, during a panel discussion in the 10:00 p.m. hour on August 11.

But while Pulliam's alleged malfeasance was nearly entirely absent from the coverage, talking heads were eager to mention another topic in their discussion of crime in Washington: January 6. TV journalists managed to bring up the unrest at the U.S. Capitol four years ago a whopping 31 times (17 on MSNBC, 14 on CNN).

This is a critical falsification for the left, because they have pursued a policy of "decarceration" and, essentially, immunity of black people from criminal law since George Floyd's heart committed a racial assault against him.

And yes, this is about black people specifically. BLM and the Democrat Cult did not begin a five year crusade to legalize crime for the sake of white perpetrators. The Democrats and media (but I repeat myself) celebrate every time they find a white criminal like it's New Years Even 2000.

The left claimed that "decarceration" would have no negative effects on public safety, because social workers would make better law-enforcers -- or law-encouragers -- than cops.

It is therefore necessary for the left to fake crime stats to keep their "decarceration" agenda alive and, of course, to avoid any political fall-out from its failure.

I have a big question: The people faking these stats are faking official government reports. When DC fraudulently reports fake stats, they are defrauding the federal government that demands these statistics be accurately compiled.

Why are we not prosecuting these people for felonies? And flipping them to turn on their superiors, who almost certainly ordered the fraud?

Was it the DC mayor who ordered the fraud?

Or was it... Biden and his operatives, and his DOJ and FBI?

We have to know. This didn't just happen.

From Twitchy, illegal criminal leaker and China-compromised espionage agent Eric Swallowall inserts himself:

Dems: Crime in DC is really rare these days and federal intervention is unnecessary.

Literally 2 hours later: All this crime in DC is now Trump's fault!

Former Bernie Sanders and then Kamala Harris aid Symone Sanders insists there's no crime problem in DC and people claiming there is a problem are just racist against black people. She also insists that, "as a black woman," police don't make her safer, but more endangered.

Sure.

Scott Jennings told delusional Democrats that, in postulating that out-of-control post-Summer-of-Love crime is just people's racist imagination working overtime, they're abandoning their usual 20/80 issues in favor of a 9/91 issue.

Scott Jennings says 91% of D.C. residents think crime is a problem -- "This is not a figment of ANYONE'S imagination. This is NOT mass hysteria."

Jennings just dropped another truth bomb, SHATTERING the Democrat narrative that crime in D.C. is a "non-issue."

"The polling that you showed earlier combining people who thought crime is an extreme problem or a moderate problem, was 91%."

"So 91% of people who live in a jurisdiction think it's a moderate or an extreme problem."

"This is not a figment of anyone's imagination."

"This is not mass hysteria."

"This isn't, you know, some... collective hallucination."

"It's real. People who live there know they aren't safe."