US President Donald Trump mentioned he’s deploying 800 Nationwide Guard troopers to Washington, DC, and taking management of its police division after claiming that crime was “uncontrolled” within the capital metropolis.
The nation’s capital is “changing into a scenario of full and whole lawlessness,” Trump mentioned at an August 11 news conference as he invoked the House Rule Act to take federal management of town.
“Washington, DC, must be one of many most secure, cleanest and most stunning cities wherever on the planet, and we’re going to make it that.”
However lots of the particulars Trump cited don’t stand as much as scrutiny.
Trump’s actions are a step in direction of making good on his risk of a federal takeover of the district after carjackers severely beat a former Division of Authorities Effectivity worker.
In a information briefing after Trump’s announcement, Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser mentioned the district would cooperate with the federal authorities and added that she speaks with Trump typically concerning the metropolis’s progress on crime.
“In truth, my first assembly with him after he was elected the second time, we went over the crime traits; we went over how we’re seeing decreases, so the president is learn in on our efforts,” she mentioned.
So why did Trump determine to take DC beneath federal management, and did he falsely declare that the crime fee had spiked within the capital metropolis?
Can Trump invoke a federal takeover of Washington, DC, beneath Part 740 of DC House Rule Act?
Trump can not take over town with out congressional approval. He’s utilizing an emergency provision to briefly oversee the district’s police power.
The US Structure created the District of Columbia as a seat of the federal authorities. In 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the Home Rule Act, enabling district residents to elect a mayor and metropolis council. The regulation offers the district autonomy for native governance, however the metropolis nonetheless solutions to Congress on issues together with budgetary oversight and the flexibility to overturn native laws.
Part 740 of the House Rule Act permits the president to briefly take management of town’s police division throughout an emergency.
In an August 11 govt order, Trump invoked Part 740, citing crime within the district as an emergency. The chief order says federal use of the district’s Metropolitan Police Division is required to keep up regulation and order; defend federal buildings and monuments; and guarantee “situations needed for the orderly functioning of the Federal Authorities.”
Trump delegated operational management of the division to US Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The emergency powers can not prolong previous 48 hours, the regulation says, except the president notifies Congress in writing concerning the cause and the time interval wanted. If he notifies Congress, Trump can prolong the emergency for as much as 30 days.
Did Washington, DC, homicides attain the best fee ever in 2023?
Trump mentioned, “Murders in 2023 reached the best fee, most likely ever. They are saying 25 years, however they don’t know what which means, as a result of it simply goes again 25 years. Can’t be worse.”
The town’s Metropolitan Police Division knowledge confirmed 274 homicides in 2023, the best quantity over the previous 20 years. Trump omitted that the division’s preliminary crime knowledge exhibits homicides have declined 32 p.c since 2023, to 187 in 2024.
The homicide rate continues to decline. This 12 months, via August 11, homicides decreased by 12 p.c in contrast with the identical time interval in 2024.
Jeff Asher, an analyst for AH Datalytics, informed PolitiFact that the homicide rate increased considerably after 2020, peaking in 2023 at 39 per 100,000 folks.
That was the best fee since 2003, however far under the 1991 peak of 81 per 100,000 folks. The falling fee matches nationwide traits, Asher mentioned.
White Home spokesperson Steven Cheung mentioned on X that town police statistics should not as they appear. Cheung hooked up a July WRC-TV story a few district police commander’s Might suspension after he was accused of altering crime statistics.
Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Gregg Pemberton informed the TV station that union members and administration mentioned the command employees wish to “ensure that these classifications of those studies are adjusted over time to ensure that the general crime stats keep down.”
A police spokesperson informed PolitiFact that Commander Michael Pulliam is on administrative go away and the division can’t touch upon energetic inside investigations. The union didn’t reply to our request for remark.
Have violent crimes reminiscent of carjacking elevated in Washington, DC?
Trump mentioned, “The variety of automotive thefts has doubled over the previous 5 years, and the variety of carjackings has greater than tripled.”
Trump is appropriate that the variety of these crimes elevated, however he didn’t point out a latest decline in carjackings.
The metropolis’s dashboard exhibits carjackings rose from 2020 via 2023 earlier than declining in 2024. This 12 months, via August 9, there have been 188 carjackings in contrast with 299 throughout the identical time interval in 2024, and in contrast with 607 in 2023, a police spokesperson informed PolitiFact.
The town’s preliminary automotive theft knowledge exhibits a 25 p.c drop from 2023 to 2024, and automotive thefts are basically flat 12 months up to now in 2025 in contrast with the identical interval final 12 months.
“Auto theft elevated an enormous quantity in DC after 2020 earlier than surging once more in 2023 following the video being posted displaying easy methods to steal sure fashions of Kia and Hyundai automobiles,” Asher mentioned. The “Kia Boyz” phenomenon occurred nationwide.
General, town’s knowledge exhibits that, via August 11 this 12 months, in contrast with 2024, violent crime within the district declined by 26 p.c. Washington, DC’s violent crime lower is a part of a nationwide pattern in main cities.
Does implementing cashless bail have an effect on crime charges?
Trump mentioned, “The unconventional left Metropolis Council adopted no money bail. By the way in which, each place within the nation the place you don’t have any money bail is a catastrophe … Any individual murders anyone, and so they’re out on no money bail earlier than the day is out.”
“No money bail” or “cashless bail” permits sure defendants awaiting trial to be launched from custody with out paying bail. Even with cashless bail legal guidelines in place, defendants accused of violent crimes, reminiscent of homicide, can nonetheless be detained if judges decide they’re a public security risk or flight threat.
Misdemeanour prices sometimes end in greater charges of launch, in response to the district’s Pretrial Providers Company.
In 2024, 89 p.c of defendants weren’t rearrested throughout the pre-trial interval, the company mentioned.
Proponents of eliminating money bail say a money requirement harms low-income folks. Those that help money bail say it ensures defendants seem in court docket, and eradicating it threatens public security. Washington, DC, was a pioneer in pretrial reform, largely eliminating money bail within the Nineteen Nineties.
There’s a scarcity of skilled consensus on the affect of cashless bail on crime charges.
A 2024 report by the left-leaning Brennan Centre for Justice at NYU Legislation mentioned researchers discovered “no statistically vital relationship” between bail reform and crime charges. The research checked out crime fee knowledge from 2015 via 2021 for 33 cities throughout the US, 22 of which had applied some kind of bail reform.
The Jail Coverage Initiative, a nonprofit that helps lowering the jail inhabitants, measured public security earlier than and after pretrial reforms in 4 states and 9 cities and counties, together with Washington, DC. Normally, researchers discovered that releasing folks pre-trial didn’t put communities in danger for extra crime.
The Trump administration has cited a 2022 report from the Yolo County, California, district legal professional’s workplace as proof that cashless bails trigger elevated crime. The report explored the results of California’s momentary bail suspension throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, discovering that 420 out of 595 folks — 70.6 p.c — have been rearrested after being launched from jail beneath this technique.
A November 2024 paper by the Public Coverage Institute of California additionally discovered that implementing emergency bail orders brought on “notable will increase in each the probability and variety of rearrests inside 30 days”. Nevertheless, as soon as reversed, the return to money bail didn’t have an effect on the variety of rearrests.
