New D.C. Data Alter Violent Crime Tally

After Reporting Drop, Police Cite 9% Rise

Violent crime in the District jumped nearly 9 percent last year, the latest police statistics show -- a big turnabout from earlier claims that the numbers had dropped from the previous year.

Police revised the yearly crime tally after turning up major discrepancies in their crime databases, officials revealed yesterday. An internal review uncovered crimes that were misclassified or not counted, officials said.

The new figures show significant increases in assaults and robberies, in marked contrast to the preliminary tallies released at year's end. Police officials first flagged questions about the record-keeping last summer and have been working to reconcile the numbers. But they made no mention of these problems when they provided the rosier crime outlook in December.

Police now say that aggravated assaults jumped 15.5 percent and that robberies rose nearly 3 percent. They earlier had said that assault totals remained level and that robberies dropped by 5 percent.

At the end of 2006, outgoing police chief Charles H. Ramsey was taking credit for bucking a national trend of increased violent crime.

The updated totals are still preliminary, officials said, and are subject to change as the review continues.

Although homicides are at a 21-year low, other street crimes are rising. Many D.C. residents have called for a stronger police presence to combat muggings and other street attacks.

Police officials provided the new statistics yesterday after receiving inquiries from The Washington Post.

Chief Cathy L. Lanier, who took office in late December, said that the review is continuing but that she does not believe there is any impropriety in the undercounting of criminal offenses.

But Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police Labor Committee, said he believes Ramsey's administration intentionally gave residents the impression that the city was safer than it was.

"They were playing with the numbers. Sooner or later, it catches up," Baumann said. "You're going to find a lot of manipulation and cherry-picking of numbers."

In an interview last night, Ramsey, who was chief for nearly nine years, defended his tenure, saying he made sure an audit system was in place to catch any errors.