In Washington, D.C.: The Trump administration has made Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the city’s emergency police commissioner. This is a big step up in the federal takeover of Washington, D.C. A Newsweek article says that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s order grants Cole all the same authority as Pamela Smith, the D.C. Chief of Police, who reports to the mayor of the city.
According to The Time, Bondi’s decision says that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) must now acquire Cole’s approval for any such orders. The directive didn’t say anything right away about Chief Smith’s status. This decision effectively puts the local police force under direct federal supervision, without going via the city’s elected authorities.
City Officials Question Federal Power
D.C. officials have quickly and strongly opposed the federal takeover. Brian Schwalb, the Attorney General for Washington, D.C., said the order was “unlawful” and told the MPD that they didn’t have to follow it. Schwalb told police officers in a memo to Chief Smith to keep accepting commands from local leaders.
Mayor Muriel Bowser agreed with this and said that there is no legal reason for a federal official to be in charge of city employees. The federal order came after Chief Smith told officers to give immigration officials information about people who were not in jail. Bondi, however, took back the order and other MPD rules that made it harder for the police to work with federal immigration authorities. He said that all future police orders must be approved by Cole.
This is the most recent step in a series of steps taken by the Trump administration to take control of the capital, which they say is necessary for “public safety.” But many who don’t like the takeover point to official statistics that shows D.C.’s murder rate, while high, has been going down over the past year and is still lower than in many other big US cities. Because of the takeover, federal forces, such as the National Guard and other agencies, have boosted their presence in the city.