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 his actions are needed to “rescue” the US capital from a surge in crime.
While violent crime spiked in Washington, DC, in 2023, data shows it has been falling quickly since then.
Here is what we know:
What has Trump announced?
During a 78-minute news conference, Trump announced that the federal government would take control of the District of Columbia (DC) Metropolitan Police Department to address surging crime.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” Trump said during the conference in which he was joined by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who will oversee the city’s police force while it is under federal control.
“This is Liberation Day in DC, and we’re going to take our capital back. We’re taking it back,” Trump said.
“Under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States, I’m officially invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act… and placing the DC Metropolitan and Police Department under direct federal control,” he said.
He also announced the deployment of the National Guard.
“I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, DC, and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly,” he said.
Trump also said that he intends to remove the capital’s homeless population, but did not provide details on how the plan would be carried out.
What is the Home Rule Act of 1973?
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.
Washington, DC, is the seat of the federal government and the only US city that is not part of the 50 states. As a result, it has no voting representation in Congress.
For about a century, up until 1973, the city was run by three presidentially appointed commissioners. That was until then-President Richard Nixon signed the Home Rule Act, enabling district residents to elect a mayor and city council.
But the Home Rule Act also says the president can take control of the city’s police force if “special conditions of an emergency nature exist”.
This is something Trump threatened to do in 2020, amid nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd. The city’s police can be used for “federal purposes”.
The president can use the DC police force for 48 hours, or up to 30 days if he notifies Congress.
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.
The mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, is adamant that the city still has control: “Let me be clear. Chief Pamela Smith is the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, and its 3,100 members work under her direction.”
“Nothing about our organisational chart has changed,” Bowser said. “And nothing in the executive order would indicate otherwise.”
According to a report by the news outlet Politico, federal law enforcement officers will be tasked with protecting federal buildings and national monuments.
What do we know about the National Guard deployment?
According to a statement from the US Army, “between 100-200 soldiers will be supporting law enforcement at any given time”.
“Their duties will include an array of tasks from administrative, logistics and physical presence in support of law enforcement,” the army said.
The National Guard will operate under Title 32 status, meaning they remain under local control but are funded by the federal government. In this status, they are not bound by the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars US service members from engaging in law enforcement activities.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that the Guard would begin flowing into DC this week.
According to a report by CNN, deployed troops are not expected to openly carry rifles as they patrol the streets. Instead, they will probably keep their weapons nearby, for example, in their trucks, so they can access them if necessary for self-defence, the official said.
Hegseth said the Pentagon was “prepared to bring in other National Guard units – other specialised units”, but did not offer any further details.
When asked whether the military would assist with clearing homeless people from the city, Hegseth said that the soldiers would assist local law enforcement.
“Our job is to stand alongside law enforcement,” he said.
Why is Trump taking these measures?
In the executive order, Trump states that rising violence in the capital has become an emergency.
The “rising violence in the capital now urgently endangers public servants, citizens, and tourists, disrupts safe and secure transportation and the proper functioning of the Federal Government”, the order states.
“The magnitude of the violent crime crisis places the District of Columbia among the most violent jurisdictions in the United States.”
It also says that the attorney general shall regularly update the president “on the status of the special conditions of an emergency nature that exist in the District of Columbia”.
MAKE D.C. SAFE AGAIN 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/xJRIcgy4ld
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 11, 2025
According to reports, the move seems to have been triggered by an assault involving Edward Coristine, a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer and protege of Elon Musk, who previously led DOGE. Police say 10 teenagers attacked the 19-year-old and his partner early on August 3. Two 15-year-olds were later arrested and charged.
“If DC doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, days after the attack, with an image showing a shirtless Coristine with what appeared to be blood spattered on his face, body and trousers.
“Perhaps it should have been done a long time ago, then this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime,” Trump added.
Is DC truly facing a crime emergency?
The mayor of Washington, DC, Bowser, questioned the effectiveness of deploying the National Guard to enforce local laws, saying that more funding for prosecutors would make a more meaningful difference.
At a news conference on Monday, the mayor said that Trump’s perception of the city was “shaped by his COVID-view experience during his first term”.
“It is true that those were more challenging times related to some issues. It is also true that we experienced a crime spike post-COVID, but we worked quickly to put laws in place and tactics that got violent offenders off our streets, and gave our police officers more tools,” she said.
According to Bowser, violent crime is now at a 30-year low in Washington, DC.
Washington, DC’s crime numbers have been questioned after authorities began investigating claims that some figures were changed to make the situation look better.
But Bowser has stood by the data and said that Trump’s picture of DC as lawless is wrong.
In January, the Department of Justice reported that violent crime in the nation’s capital fell 35 percent from 2023 to 2024.
Official crime statistics from the DC Metropolitan Police Department show that violent offences declined between 2023 and 2024, and preliminary 2025 data indicate the trend is continuing.
The data for this year shows that homicides have fallen by 12 percent, and assaults with dangerous weapons by 20 percent.
The FBI, however, reported that nationwide violent crime also fell, by an estimated 4.5 percent in 2024, compared with 2023.