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 “turning into a scenario of full and complete lawlessness,” Trump mentioned at an August 11 news conference as he invoked the House Rule Act to take federal management of the town.
“Washington, DC, needs to be one of many most secure, cleanest and most lovely cities wherever on this planet, and we’re going to make it that.”
However most of the particulars Trump cited don’t stand as much as scrutiny.
Trump’s actions are a step in the 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 tendencies; 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 below federal management, and did he falsely declare that the crime price had spiked within the capital metropolis?
Can Trump invoke a federal takeover of Washington, DC, below Part 740 of DC House Rule Act?
Trump can’t take over the 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 legislation offers the district autonomy for native governance, however the metropolis nonetheless solutions to Congress on issues together with budgetary oversight and the power to overturn native laws.
Part 740 of the House Rule Act permits the president to briefly take management of the 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 legislation and order; defend federal buildings and monuments; and guarantee “circumstances mandatory 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’t prolong previous 48 hours, the legislation says, except the president notifies Congress in writing concerning the purpose 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 very best price ever in 2023?
Trump mentioned, “Murders in 2023 reached the very best price, in all probability ever. They are saying 25 years, however they don’t know what meaning, as a result of it simply goes again 25 years. Can’t be worse.”
The town’s Metropolitan Police Division information confirmed 274 homicides in 2023, the very best quantity over the previous 20 years. Trump omitted that the division’s preliminary crime information reveals homicides have declined 32 p.c since 2023, to 187 in 2024.
The homicide rate continues to decline. This yr, by way of August 11, homicides decreased by 12 p.c in contrast with the identical time interval in 2024.
Jeff Asher, an analyst for AH Datalytics, instructed PolitiFact that the homicide rate increased considerably after 2020, peaking in 2023 at 39 per 100,000 folks.
That was the very best price since 2003, however far beneath the 1991 peak of 81 per 100,000 folks. The falling price matches nationwide tendencies, Asher mentioned.
White Home spokesperson Steven Cheung mentioned on X that the town police statistics will not be as they appear. Cheung hooked up a July WRC-TV story a couple of district police commander’s Could suspension after he was accused of altering crime statistics.
Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Gregg Pemberton instructed the TV station that union members and administration mentioned the command employees need to “be sure that these classifications of those stories are adjusted over time to be sure that the general crime stats keep down.”
A police spokesperson instructed PolitiFact that Commander Michael Pulliam is on administrative depart and the division can’t touch upon lively inner investigations. The union didn’t reply to our request for remark.
Have violent crimes comparable to carjacking elevated in Washington, DC?
Trump mentioned, “The variety of automobile 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 current decline in carjackings.
The metropolis’s dashboard reveals carjackings rose from 2020 by way of 2023 earlier than declining in 2024. This yr, by way of 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 instructed PolitiFact.
The town’s preliminary automobile theft information reveals a 25 p.c drop from 2023 to 2024, and automobile thefts are primarily flat yr to this point in 2025 in contrast with the identical interval final yr.
“Auto theft elevated an enormous quantity in DC after 2020 earlier than surging once more in 2023 following the video being posted displaying the best way to steal sure fashions of Kia and Hyundai vehicles,” Asher mentioned. The “Kia Boyz” phenomenon occurred nationwide.
General, the town’s information reveals that, by way of August 11 this yr, 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 development in main cities.
Does implementing cashless bail have an effect on crime charges?
Trump mentioned, “The novel 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 someone, 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, comparable to homicide, can nonetheless be detained if judges decide they’re a public security risk or flight threat.
Misdemeanour costs usually lead to greater charges of launch, in keeping with 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 courtroom, 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 knowledgeable consensus on the impression 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 important relationship” between bail reform and crime charges. The research checked out crime price information from 2015 by way of 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. Usually, 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 lawyer’s workplace as proof that cashless bails trigger elevated crime. The report explored the consequences of California’s non permanent bail suspension throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, discovering that 420 out of 595 folks — 70.6 p.c — had been rearrested after being launched from jail below this method.
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 chance and variety of rearrests inside 30 days”. Nonetheless, as soon as reversed, the return to money bail didn’t have an effect on the variety of rearrests.
