An FBI preliminary report indicating a national drop in violent crime did not include D.C. statistics because the District, alone among major jurisdictions, failed to file its crime report.
More than 12,750 law enforcement agencies sent in information, which showed a 2.5 percent drop in violence nationwide. Of the 50 most populated U.S. cities, the District was the only police department to fail to send its murder, rape and armed robbery statistics to the FBI for its preliminary report.
“That’s embarrassing,” Councilman Phil Mendelson said. “I thought we learned that lesson last year.”
According to an internal D.C. police memo, violent crime increased 6.5 percent in the first six months of last year. But Police Chief Cathy Lanier on Monday vetoed a request to release crime statistics covering the entire year, said Polly Hanson, head of the D.C. police statistics services bureau.
The District’s problem in complying with the FBI, according to Hanson, is that the department uses two record-keeping databases that classify crimes differently. One database is updated daily and used by commanders to track trends and fight crime. The other is used for the sole purpose of sending to the FBI.
The department was not able to gather its data in time for the FBI’s preliminary report, but has already sent information to the FBI to be included in the bureau’s final report to be released in the fall, Hanson said.
Lanier vowed to fix the problem two years ago after 11,000 police reports were left out of the 2006 crime totals reported to the FBI. When the FBI included the new statistics, the city’s reported crime rate jumped from a 1 percent decrease to a 9 percent increase.
On Monday, the FBI touted a nationwide decrease in crime. Murders fell 4.4 percent. Property crime dipped 1.6 percent.
There were some increases nationwide. In small cities with fewer than 10,000 residents, murder rose 5.5 percent, rape increased 1.4 percent and robbery 3.9 percent.
