It has been a week now since President Donald Trump ordered the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police in Washington, DC. Now additional law enforcement officers and National Guard soldiers patrol the streets of the nation’s capital, resulting in a much heavier police presence. But a week in, how much progress has been made – and what comes next?
A Week of Federal Control in DC
Last Monday, August 11, President Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. This allowed him to assume emergency control of the police for 30 days. The ensuing week saw soldiers and federal police flood the streets alongside the city cops. According to Attorney General Pam Bondi, authorities have arrested more than 300 people – including 68 on Saturday night.
“Homicide suspects, drug traffickers, and more are being charged,” Bondi wrote on X. “I’ll continue to stand with you as we make DC safe again!” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller also announced on X that “graffiti is coming down in Washington, DC.” He added that “graffiti left untouched to scar public spaces is the visual declaration of a society’s surrender.”
A federal official told NewsNation that the police actions Saturday night “involved 1,800 participants,” and that the National Guard was not making arrests “at this time.” Still, with the drastically increased police presence, the approximately 800 National Guard troops also patrolling the city aids in the visibility effect of "policing by presence.” The idea is that when criminally inclined folks see officers, they’re less likely to commit a crime there. Does the crime simply move to another, less policed location? Probably, at least to some degree – but with thousands of armed, uniformed people roaming the streets, there’s a lot less of “somewhere else” left unpatrolled than before.
The new sheriffs in town haven’t just been rounding up suspects and intimidating would-be criminals to rethink their plans, however. They’ve also actively been rounding up the homeless.
The US Department of the Interior announced Saturday that it was adopting a zero-tolerance policy on homeless camps. Those residing in encampments are to be offered “resources to shelter, pathways to housing and access to behavioral health services.” That’s the carrot. The stick comes after for those who refuse shelter and treatment – arrests and a bulldozing of the encampment.
What Comes Next?
President Trump is still hoping Congress will extend his authority over the Home Rule Act even further, but, for now, he has backed off a bit, allowing DC Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith to retake operational control of her department. Still, the city’s police are ordered to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. And while many of the more than 300 arrests may have been of drug dealers and murder suspects, a good many were also arrested for being illegal aliens, a fact that has the city’s progressives riled up.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said that Bondi “issued a new directive to Mayor Bowser requiring MPD to provide the services found necessary by her designee, DEA Administrator Terry Cole, to comply fully and completely with federal immigration law and authorities, regardless of any policies MPD might otherwise have.”
“President Trump will continue pursuing all efforts to Make DC Safe Again and end violent crime despite liberal opposition,” she added.
Will Congress grant Trump a longer window of federal control over DC? While many Republicans support the president’s move here, the growing protests of the federal takeover could cause some GOP lawmakers to reconsider. The proof of the pudding, as the saying goes, however, is in the eating of it. We’re just one week into a month of federal authority, giving the legislation a few weeks of results to look over, at least. Should crime drop drastically in the days to come, it will become harder to refuse President Trump’s request.
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