Washington, D.C., settled out of court with a former Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) sergeant who alleged the department’s leadership deliberately under-counted crimes, and documents involved in the case appear to validate the former officer’s claims, The Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday.
Former Sergeant Charlotte Djossou sued the city in 2020 alleging the MPD deliberately downgraded felonies, such as theft and assault with a deadly weapon, to misdemeanors in order to exclude them from the city’s official crime statistics, while allegedly retaliating against her for speaking out, according to various records and documents obtained by the Free Beacon. The corporate media has insisted that D.C.’s crime problem is overblown, often citing the city’s crime data without skepticism and omitting that a top MPD officer is under investigation for allegedly manipulating crime stats.
Records show that leaders in the MPD specifically instructed officers to reclassify crimes so as to exclude them from public statistics, according to the Free Beacon. (RELATED: Some DC Locals Aren’t Convinced Their Shooting-Infested City Has A Crime Problem)
Washington DC Metro Police, along with FBI agents, ATF and US Park Service Police, work at the scene where a man, allegedly high on drugs and refused entry to authorities, was removed on Georgia Ave NW on August 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
For example, the MPD would classify shoplifting and theft offenses as “Taking Property Without Right,” which would not be counted in the city’s crime data, according to the Free Beacon. Former MPD lieutenant Andrew Zabavsky, who is currently serving a four-year sentence for covering up a murder, admitted in court that the reclassification was expressly done to obfuscate the incidents from publicly reported data.
As a result, crimes defined as “Taking Property Without Right” grew by 500% after the relevant classification directives were issued, according to the Free Beacon.
Police captain Franklin Porter, a senior official, allegedly directed officers in 2019 to not classify crimes such as “Assault With a Dangerous Weapon,” “Robberies,” “Burglary,” or “Felony Assault” as felonies, according to the Free Beacon. He instead allegedly directed his subordinates to let the watch-duty officer handle the classification.
In one instance, a crime involving a woman receiving a deep cut on her face was allegedly not classified as an assault with a deadly weapon, but instead characterized by the captain on duty as “Sick person to the hospital” in the official report, according to the Free Beacon.
“If the Watch Commander is not on the scene then call the Watch Commander’s phone number,” Porter wrote in an email. “I don’t want to be notified that we have a part one [felony] offense in an email.”
Djossou’s lawsuit was settled out of court just days before President Donald Trump federalized the MPD, according to the Free Beacon. The D.C. police union has stood by President Donald Trump’s decision to exert federal control over the force, saying that rank-and-file “stand with the President” and that D.C.’s crime is “out of control.”
Trump also deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to the streets of the capital to aid the MPD in their efforts to crack down on crime.
The MPD did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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