The Justice Department on Tuesday opened an investigation of the Metropolitan Police Department allegedly publishing phony crime data to make the city appear safer than it is, according to multiple reports.

The investigation stems from a WRC-TV report about a Metropolitan Police commander being accused of manipulating violent crime data.

President Trump cited the report in declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital to justify a federal takeover of the city’s police force.

“D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety,” Mr. Trump said Monday on Truth Social. “This is a very bad and dangerous thing to do, and they are under serious investigation for so doing!”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, and the D.C. Council, which is almost entirely made up of Democrats, have bashed the president for the move, saying that violent crime is at a 30-year low in the District.

Mr. Trump instead countered that the capital’s murder and car theft rates outpace other major cities.

In 2023, the District lived through a generational crime wave in which 274 people were killed — the most homicides in a year since the late 1990s.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia will lead the investigation, although what criminal charges D.C. leaders could face remain unclear.

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.