DC mayor questions feds' claims about impact they're making on crime

Source: ABC News

August 18, 2025, 5:41 PM


Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser questioned claims Monday that the influx of federal officers has made the city safer, after the attorney general touted arrest numbers from over the weekend.

“[D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department] takes guns off the street every day and every week, and any time you have a surge of officers, I would expect that you have some results," Bowser said. "I say repeatedly, we need 500 more officers. In D.C. with 500 more officers, get 500 more officers worth of results. What is not necessary, however, is this kind of commandeering or the attempted commandeering of the force itself, and the expanded, I think, work that is not related to violence.”

When asked, Bowser emphasized that National Guard troops “can't do law enforcement, as far as I know,” adding, “Unless their orders have somehow changed, I don't know that they can engage in arrest.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who spent some time over the weekend at U.S. Park Police headquarters serving meals to federal agents deployed in D.C., said the operation has so far netted 400 arrests.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dc-mayor-questions-feds-claims-impact-making-crime/story?id=124757793