With Congress demanding internal documents and the police union gloating about the proposed sacking of 13 top officials, interim police chief Jeffery Carroll met the press Tuesday, a day after he moved to clean house over manipulated crime data.
It made for quite a spectacle in a department that in recent years has faced leadership turnover and intensified federal scrutiny. Carroll opened by confirming the rumors: All 13 of the proposed firings are related to an internal investigation into crime data manipulation, he said.
He confirmed the restructuring of the department began yesterday with the shuttering of an office formerly led by the department’s second-in-command, as well as a series of transfers and promotions to fill the positions of officials under investigation.
After news of the pending firings first broke in the Washington Post, I was the first to report the details of the department’s restructuring after obtaining internal communications sent Monday evening. The officials are all on administrative leave pending the results of the department's “trial board” disciplinary process, where they can appeal the decision.
But Carroll refused to disclose the findings of the internal investigation, citing personnel matters. That transparency seems pretty essential given that the alleged manipulation of crime statistics cuts to the basic question of whether Carroll’s department is trustworthy – and could serve as further reason for President Donald Trump to seize control in the District. Trump has zeroed in on long-standing complaints about crime misclassification, using it to justify his takeover of the D.C. police department and declaration of a crime emergency last summer even as D.C. crime rates fell.
Carroll also declined to answer why he was moving to dismiss top officers when even scathing Justice Department and House Oversight Committee reports haven’t actually identified any case of top brass ordering underclassification of crimes. (Those reports merely cited an overall toxic culture as the culprit for inaccurate stats).
And when asked whether D.C. police have heeded Republican Rep. James Comer’s public demands to hand over the investigation, Carroll was vague, saying he is “in communication" with the House Oversight Committee chairman about the request.
But he was clear on one point: crime is still down in the District.
“We have made meaningful progress over the last three years in reducing crime,” he said. “Homicides, shootings and car jackings have fallen steadily since 2023.”
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D.C. began the year with its longest stretch without a homicide in decades and – even after a spate of killings in April – the homicide rate is down 42 percent compared to this time last year. And last year, D.C. already experienced its fewest slayings since 2017. Even crime statistic skeptics generally agree that these numbers are accurate – it’s hard to fudge the stats when there’s a dead body and a grieving family.
Carroll also said he still trusts the police department’s crime data and depends on it each morning to guide deployment decisions.
He also confirmed the details I reported yesterday on the departmental restructuring. Christopher Dorsey will replace Tatjana Savoy as Second District Commander and Nikki Lavenhouse will replace LaShay Makal as assistant chief of patrol services south. He said the commanders have “already hit the ground running” in their new roles.
The shuttered office, the Office of Patrol Operations, was established in 2024 by former chief Pamela Smith and had been led by executive assistant police chief Andre Wright. Wright’s name appeared multiple times in a draft Justice Department report on alleged crime statistics manipulation at the department. He had been placed on administrative leave earlier this year after an investigation surfaced inappropriate text messages on his work phone, according to two law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
On Tuesday, both the House Oversight Committee and the D.C. police union gloated. In a scathing statement, Comer took credit for the pending terminations and railed against D.C. leaders for “running cover for corrupt MPD officials.” And Gregg Pemberton, president of the union, called the disciplinary actions long overdue.
“Justice is being served,” Pemberton said in a statement. “The command staff officials responsible for this betrayal must be held accountable, not just for the sake of the thousands of dedicated MPD officers they undermined, but for the residents of the District of Columbia who deserve honest leadership and real public safety. The corruption that endangered lives, eroded trust, and allowed shooters, robbers, and predators to evade justice cannot be tolerated.”
