Crime in Washington, D.C., has reportedly dropped significantly following President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the police department and deployment of the National Guard.
Last week, the president declared a public crime emergency under the D.C. Home Rule Act, which grants the president the power to take control of law enforcement in the city.
The Stats
As reported on Thursday’s AM Update, the DC Police Union is touting the results of the president’s crackdown so far. Overall crime is down 8 percent, robbery down 46 percent, assault with a deadly weapon down 6 percent, carjacking down 83 percent, car theft down 21 percent, violent crime down 22 percent, and property crime down 6 percent.
Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller took a victory lap of sorts on Wednesday, serving lunch to National Guardsmen and police officers posted at Union Station. The once opulent train station has been overrun with mentally ill and sometimes violent homeless people in recent years, a symbol of the district’s decline.
A small group of vocal protesters greeted the delegation upon arrival, and Vice President Vance appealed to critics of the administration’s action in his remarks. “We don’t have to live like this. We do not have to allow our cities to be taken over by violence and by disorder and by chaos,” he said. “You just got to have the political willpower to do it.”
“One of the things that we’ve done already in Union Station in just nine days is we’ve made it a place where people can walk around safely, they can bring their kids again,” Vance added. “And I think if we set a standard in Washington, D.C., that political willpower can bring some common sense law and order back to these communities, then maybe some other communities and other cities will follow suit.”
The DOJ Investigation
Some on the left have called the clean up efforts an unnecessary power grab, citing Metropolitan Police Department data that shows a 35 percent drop in violent crime in 2024 and an additional 25 percent drop through August 2025.
However, the Department of Justice confirmed on Wednesday that it has opened a federal probe into whether the police department manipulated the crime data to make the city seem safer than it really is. That investigation reportedly to be led by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro’s office.
Police Commander Michael Pulliam was reportedly placed on paid leave in May amid an internal investigation into allegations he changed crime data to downplay the severity of the crisis, an accusation he denies.
During an appearance on Fox News Tuesday, DC Police Union Chairman Gregg Pemberton said one of the “chief complaints” among his members is that they would “respond to the scenes of these violent crimes” only to have “a captain, or a commander, or sometimes a lieutenant show up on the scene” and “advise them to take a report for a lesser offense.”
For example, Pemberton alleged burglaries may be reported as unlawful entry or thefts and shootings or stabbings could go unreported entirely. “One of the things that we see them do often is sometimes there will be a shooting or a stabbing and if the victim is uncooperative with the police – which is not uncommon in some areas of the city – they will be directed to take an ‘injured person to the hospital report,’ which is not even a crime at all, it’s an incident report,” he explained.
He said the manipulation has been “part and parcel of the police department for some time,” and that makes him “very skeptical that these crime stats are accurate.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the DOJ is taking the allegations seriously. “The reality is that we know that D.C. has been an incredibly unsafe place to live for a very long time and so, in some ways, it’s not surprising that we hear about reports of this type of conduct that suggests that D.C. is safer than everybody that lives here knows to be true,” he told Fox News. “So, we’re investigating it and hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of it at some point soon.”
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