Violent crime in the District of Columbia jumped by 9 percent last year, according to the FBI’s preliminary report, despite boasts by the Metropolitan Police Department in January that 2006 was the safest in decades.
The increase follows a nationwide trend in which the crime rate has increased for the second consecutive year. The news comes while D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier deals with four murders this weekend, including that of a 13-year-old boy. For the year, the District has suffered 74 murders compared with 63 last year, an increase of 17.5 percent.
In updating the D.C.’s numbers for 2006, the crime rate for last year went from a 2.4 percent decrease from 2005 to a 9.1 increase — an 11.5 percent swing.
The main problem, MPD Research Director Anne Grant said, is that the police department enters crime reports into two databases — one the police use to track daily trends and another to report to the FBI each year. Because crimes are categorized differently from D.C. Criminal Code to the FBI’s code, it takes several months to reconcile the two databases. Lanier wants to have one database.
D.C. police said an internal audit last summer discovered that some crimes were misclassified or not properly entered into the department’s computer tracking system, and the department was working to reconcile the discrepancy.
Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police Labor Committee, said the previous police administration manipulated the numbers to give the perception that the city was safe.
“They’ve been lying about the crime stats for years,” Baumann said. “It’s the same old MPD shuffle.” By underreporting crime, the department can’t get the resources it needs to fight crime, Baumann said.
The problems in the recording of crimes were highlighted last October in a D.C. inspector general investigation that was launched after nearly 480 missing reports were discovered in a clerk’s desk in Southwest D.C.
While blaming the missing reports on a retired crime analyst, the investigation revealed that the district commander had downgraded some serious crimes to minor offenses.
