On August 7, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that sent shockwaves through Washington, D.C., placing the city’s Metropolitan Police Department under federal control for the first time in decades. The move, which was quickly branded as a crackdown on crime, has since ignited a fierce debate over its true intent, effectiveness, and legality—while also exposing deep divisions between federal officials and local leaders.
In the weeks following the takeover, the city’s streets have seen a dramatic influx of federal agents and National Guard troops. According to CNN, 2,000 National Guard members were authorized by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to carry firearms, joining thousands of federal agents now patrolling the capital. The sight of these forces, often in unmarked vehicles with only the occasional flash of blue and red lights, has become a new normal for D.C. residents.
But what has all this muscle actually accomplished? According to a CNN review of crime data, the first full week after the federal intervention—beginning August 12—saw a moderate drop in reported crime. Property crimes fell roughly 19%, and violent crime dipped by about 17% compared to the prior week. Robberies and car break-ins plummeted by more than 40%. However, the picture isn’t uniformly rosy: other thefts remained flat, burglaries actually increased by 6%, and assaults with a dangerous weapon rose by 14%. Two murders occurred in the city since Trump’s order—one on August 11, the day the order was signed, and another on August 13. None have been reported since, though, as CNN notes, the city has seen several murder-free weeks earlier in 2025.
Yet, the most striking statistic isn’t about crime—it’s about immigration. Since the takeover, federal officials arrested 300 people in D.C. suspected of being in the country illegally, a more than tenfold increase over the average of 12 such arrests per week earlier in the year, according to the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley. ICE agents, now embedded with local police, have been trailing officers and are ready to respond if anyone pulled over or questioned is found without legal status. Viral videos have shown ICE agents tackling immigrants, including food delivery workers, and breaking car windows to make arrests. Traffic checkpoints—uncommon in the district—have popped up, with officers pulling over and searching vehicles, though the criteria for selecting vehicles remain unclear.
For many local leaders and residents, the surge in immigration arrests has only heightened suspicions that the real goal of the takeover is less about curbing crime and more about ramping up immigration enforcement. Mayor Muriel Bowser, speaking to CNN, pointed to a recent order from Attorney General Pam Bondi that “almost exclusively focused on immigration enforcement and homeless encampment enforcement.” Bowser, choosing her words carefully, added, “So I’ll let you draw your own conclusion.”
Washington’s attorney general has taken the fight to court, filing a lawsuit challenging Bondi’s order, which directed police to ignore the district’s sanctuary laws that previously limited cooperation with ICE. During a recent hearing, a federal judge indicated that Trump’s authority under the Home Rule Act likely allows him to order police to assist ICE, muddying the waters on what local autonomy remains.
On the ground, the atmosphere is tense and, at times, surreal. While some residents have welcomed the visible police presence—hoping it might deter violent crime—many others see it as overkill. “It just feels like overkill,” one D.C. resident told CNN while out on the city’s popular U-Street corridor, lined with restaurants and clubs. Another resident, standing outside police tape after a shooting, remarked, “They only come when bad s--- happens.”
Public opinion, at least according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll, is overwhelmingly against the federal intervention. Roughly 80% of D.C. residents oppose Trump’s police takeover and the deployment of the National Guard and FBI. The White House, however, has dismissed these findings, with Vice President JD Vance and others claiming—without evidence—that the federal surge is popular with locals. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told CNN, “The drops in crime are not 'moderate,' they are life-changing for the countless of D.C. residents and visitors who have not been murdered, robbed, carjacked, or victims of overall violent crime in the last week. The priority of this operation remains getting violent criminals off the streets—regardless of immigration status.”
President Trump himself has touted the operation as a public safety “miracle,” boasting on social media that the city went a week without a single reported homicide. “D.C. was a hellhole, and now it’s safe,” Trump declared to reporters. But, as CNN points out, this isn’t actually the first homicide-free week in recent memory. Earlier in 2025, the city saw several stretches without any murders, including a more than two-week period from late February through mid-March. So, while the drop in violence is real, it’s not unprecedented.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police Department is facing its own scrutiny. The Trump Justice Department is investigating whether MPD has manipulated crime data, following reports that a police commander was placed on leave amid allegations of downgrading offenses to lower-level crimes. The department’s internal probe is ongoing, and the reliability of crime statistics has become a political flashpoint.
The federal government’s authority to control D.C.’s police is, by law, limited to 30 days from August 7, 2025. Any extension would require Congressional approval—a tall order given the slim Republican majority. Yet, a White House insider suggested that Trump may seek to make the takeover “permanent,” regardless of his legal authority. The president himself has said he could keep federal agents and National Guard members in the city “as long as I want,” raising constitutional questions that are sure to play out in court and on Capitol Hill.
Protests against the crackdown have been sporadic but spirited, with residents sometimes forming crowds around ICE agents and chanting for them to leave. The city’s leaders, meanwhile, are locked in a legal and political battle to restore local control and defend their sanctuary policies.
As the 30-day deadline approaches, Washington, D.C. finds itself at a crossroads—caught between competing visions of public safety, immigration policy, and federal authority. The full impact of the takeover, both on crime and on the city’s sense of autonomy, remains to be seen. For now, the nation’s capital is left to navigate a new and uncertain normal, its streets patrolled by an uneasy alliance of local and federal forces, and its future hanging in the balance.