Hawkeye Reporter

Witnesses at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, led by Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), described what they see as problems with crime data reporting, judicial decisions, and law enforcement policies in cities run by Democrats. The hearing featured testimony from the grandmother of a violent crime victim, a police union chairman, federal law enforcement officials, and a state senator.

Gregg Pemberton, Chairman of the D.C. Police Union, addressed concerns about alleged manipulation of crime statistics in Washington, D.C. "The Internal Affairs Division at the Metropolitan Police Department had publicly announced they were investigating command staff officials for manipulating crime data. The accusation was that they were going into police databases and changing felonies to misdemeanors to keep crime numbers down.

“Do I believe that crime data was inflated? Yes… Our members report to [the D.C. Police Union] quite often… that when officers respond to the scene of a crime, and they’re investigating what they believe is a felony, inevitably some management official will contact them, either by arriving on the scene or by phone, and direct them or sometimes even order them to take a report for lesser offenses – typically misdemeanors – to keep those crime stats down.

“The reporting that crime went down 35 percent in 2024, and then another 25 percent in the first six months of 2025 – I don’t think those numbers are accurate at all.”

Christopher Goumenis of the Drug Enforcement Administration discussed changes he has observed over his career due to evolving policies. "Since approximately 2020, law enforcement has begun to move away from proactive policing… to more of a reactive way of policing…. Lawmakers, prosecutors and even police officials passed policies and procedures limiting patrol officers’ ability to engage in proactive policing… There became a practice of releasing criminals immediately after an arrest rather than keeping them incarcerated. Legislators followed suit by passing cashless bail or pushing for people to be released on personal recognizance bonds regardless of the crime committed. This practice has allowed for a revolving door of criminals in and out of the justice system in prisons. Incarcerations have been shortened. Sentences have been reduced. Criminals have become emboldened. Criminals no longer fear arrest, convictions [or] incarcerations.

“The D.C. Superior Court routinely releases criminals on personal recognizance bonds shortly after they've been arrested. As I stated earlier, most the time they're released before my agents even finish processing evidence.”

Forlesia Cook shared her family's experience following her grandson's murder case: “We read our impact statements, and let me tell you, Marty was so loved in my family, we had at least 30 impact statements. After we read them, [the judge] said to us, ‘Thank you for your impact statements.’ She looks over at the killer, she looks over at him and she says… ‘Is there anything [you’d] like to say? I know you had a stressful day, after listening to all of that.’

“No, we did not receive justice. He was given, concurrently, with the time that he was charged with guns and drugs, 10 years concurrently. So he had already done four, now how many years does that mean? He’ll get five years of probation or on parole? So how many years does he actually do in jail? This is a heinous murder that he committed.”

Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor responded when asked about gun regulations: “What citizens in Memphis are fearful of are the guns that are on the streets [with] people that shouldn’t have them… this picture here, this is a group of young men in a convenience store posing with long guns and handguns so that they can have a picture for social media. It's these types of pictures that I want to try to stress because they don't have these guns because we don't have enough regulations. They have these guns because they don't follow the law.

“We can pass all the gun laws you want but criminals are criminals by nature. We've had that problem since Cain slew Abel with a rock. We don't need to continue to put restrictions on law-abiding citizens who just simply want to protect themselves in their homes.”