National Guard Deployment Considered for D.C. Urban Crime
The U.S. military is currently in the process of gearing up to mobilize National Guard troops within Washington D.C, in response to President Trump’s increasing concern over urban crime within the capital. The president has yet to formally sign off on deployment orders as of early Monday. However, it is anticipated that he will communicate, during a White House press briefing, his decision to dispatch a contingent of District of Columbia National Guardsmen to back local law enforcement in the city. Specific details pertaining to this operation remained unclear early Monday.
Despite the recorded decline in Washington, D.C.’s crime rates, President Trump has expressed that the situation is still ‘completely unchecked’ and has gone as far as suggesting a possible intervention by federal authorities. The possibility of National Guard troops being activated, initially reported by Reuters, indicates that they would likely not be granted the power to make arrests. Instead, their role would be to assist official law enforcement officers, potentially lightening their load so they are better able to perform patrol duties.
In addition, plans are being put into action by the Trump administration to reposition 120 F.B.I. agents in Washington to fulfill nighttime patrol duties as an integral component of President Trump’s law enforcement efforts. A significant number of these agents will be transitioned temporarily from routine duties at the F.B.I.’s primary field office in the capital.
This imminent activation of troops in Washington draws parallels to the garrisoning of roughly 5,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles earlier this summer. These troops were tasked with managing protests stemming from immigration sweep operations, in order to ensure the safety of the federal agents implementing them.
Since that time, all but a residual force of about 250 National Guard soldiers have been recalled. President Trump’s previous use of National Guard soldiers along with other federal law enforcement units during his first term was to enforce order during peaceful protests in the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement following the police-inflicted death of George Floyd in 2020.
It’s worth noting that unlike state governors, the District of Columbia doesn’t hold command over its National Guard troops. This gives the president a significant degree of latitude in terms of their deployment. This unique situation in Washington D.C presents President Trump with a flexible tool for dealing with the city’s urban crime issues.