Mayor Muriel Bowser called out President Donald Trump’s takeover of the D.C. police department as both “unsettling and unprecedented” during a press briefing, pushing back on what she described as a “so-called emergency” used to justify federal control of the city’s law enforcement.
The D.C. Mayor acknowledged the president’s authority under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows a temporary 30-day federal takeover in the name of public safety, but made clear she found the move highly irregular. Trump’s order, announced over the weekend, places the Metropolitan Police Department under federal command and deploys officers from multiple agencies across the city. The president claimed the action was necessary to “stop violent crime” and clean up the city, including clearing homeless encampments and threatening to bring in the National Guard. Bowser, however, pointed to data showing violent crime in the District had dropped to a 30-year low, with a 26% decrease in violent incidents and an overall 7% dip in crime this year. The mayor also noted that while the federal intervention was disturbing, it wasn’t entirely unexpected given the administration’s past rhetoric.