WASHINGTON, D.C.— The White House has acknowledged that there are now “significantly higher” numbers of federal agents and National Guard personnel patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C. during the day and at night. This is a step up from the government intervention that started on Monday when President Donald Trump sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., and took over the police department.
The District of Columbia Home Rule Act gave the president the power to take control of the federal government for up to 30 days in an emergency. Federal and city police made 23 arrests on the first day of the takeover. But D.C. council member Christina Henderson dismissed this number, saying that the arrests were mostly because of “a bunch of traffic stops” and that the list of arrests looked like “a normal Saturday night in any big city.”
Disagreement About Crime Rates and the Future of Federal Control
The president has sent 800 National Guard troops to the city, saying it has become “lawless.” The administration’s claims of a crime crisis at the emergency level don’t match up with what D.C. authorities have said, which is that violent crime is at a 30-year low after a spike two years ago. According to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in the city, the number of killings has gone down by 32% and the number of violent crimes has gone down by 26% since previous year. On the other hand, the White House said that in 2024, the homicide rate was 27.3 per 100,000 people, which was the fourth highest in the country. The White House has also talked about a big surge in crimes involving cars. For example, carjackings went up 547% from 2018 to 2023.
President Trump said on Wednesday that he will push Republicans in Congress to keep the federal government in charge of the city’s police force for more than the first 30 days. Congress would have to approve this change, and leaders in D.C. have already spoken out against it. The president has said before that he would like to extend federal control to other Democratic-run cities, like Chicago, since he is worried about crime there too.