United States President Donald Trump has announced that he is temporarily taking control of the Washington, DC police department, while deploying 800 National Guard troops to the city. Trump said that his actions are needed to “rescue” the US capital from a surge in crime. Although violent crime spiked in Washington, DC, in 2023, data has shown a decline since then. Trump made this announcement during a 78-minute news conference where he stated that the federal government would take control of the District of Columbia (DC) Metropolitan Police Department and oversee the city’s police force. He also announced the deployment of the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, DC and mentioned his intention to remove the capital’s homeless population.
The Home Rule Act of 1973 is a US federal law that gave Washington, DC, a significant degree of self-government for the first time. While Washington, DC, is the seat of the federal government and the only US city that is not part of the 50 states, it has no voting representation in Congress. Under the Home Rule Act, the president can take control of the city’s police force if “special conditions of an emergency nature exist.” Trump said he plans to keep the federal takeover of the force going past the first 48 hours, and will officially inform the appropriate parties.
According to a report by the news outlet Politico, federal law enforcement officers will be tasked with protecting federal buildings and national monuments. The National Guard will operate under Title 32 status, meaning they remain under local control but are funded by the federal government. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated that the Guard would begin flowing into DC this week and that deployed troops are not expected to openly carry rifles as they patrol the streets. When asked whether the military would assist with clearing homeless people from the city, Hegseth said that the soldiers would assist local law enforcement.
Mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, is adamant that the city still has control and that the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, Pamela Smith, and its 3,100 members work under her direction. According to a report by the Department of Justice, violent crime in Washington, DC, fell by 35 percent from 2023 to 2024. Official crime statistics from the DC Metropolitan Police Department also show that violent offenses declined between 2023 and 2024. Despite the data, Trump insists that rising violence has become an emergency in Washington, DC, and has urged authorities to address the issue.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/12/why-is-trump-sending-us-national-guard-to-washington-dc?traffic_source=rss
