The District is one of the most dangerous big cities in the country, a report relying on FBI crime statistics says. Even as the D.C. police department touts falling homicide rates, a report released by CQ Press on Monday listed the District as the fourth-most dangerous city in the country among those with a population of 500,000 or more. Baltimore was listed as No. 2. Detroit was the most dangerous big city in the nation. Among all cities, D.C. ranked 22nd.
The report relied upon FBI crime statistics, which have often shown different results than the statistics released by the city’s police department. Police Chief Cathy Lanier has repeatedly said crime levels are falling in the city, but FBI reports consistently find that it has not.
“We’ve been told the last three years that crime is down,” police union chief Kris Baumann said. “Now we know that D.C. is the fourth-most dangerous city in the country.”
A police spokeswoman declined to comment.
In August, Lanier said on TBD TV’s “NewsTalk” that she runs “the most transparent police department in the country.” She said her claim was backed up by an FBI audit, which Lanier then refused to release.
Mayor-elect Vince Gray has voiced concern about the information the department releases. Issues with D.C. police statistics are well-documented.
» Last year, the FBI reported that violent crime in the District rose 2.3 percent in 2008 while Lanier said violence had fallen by more than 5 percent during the same period.
» Up until this year, D.C. had been the only major city in the country that did not provide preliminary crime statistics.
» In July, internal police statistics obtained by The Washington Examiner showed that sexual assaults across the city had spiked 50 percent in the first five months of 2010 over the same period in 2009. Lanier said “when all classifications are accounted for,” the number of sex assaults were really down 3 percent.
Baumann said he hopes having a new mayor will put an end to statistical opaqueness.
“Now that the election is over and we’re done with the rhetoric, it’s time to get to the bottom of why we’ve had two sets of crime statistics,” he said.
