Trump says D.C. has been 'overtaken' by crime. The data tells a different story.
President Trump announced Monday that the Washington, D.C., police force will be placed under the control of the federal government in order to 'restore law, order and public safety' in the nation's capital.
'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people. And we're not going to let it happen anymore,' Trump said during a press conference Monday morning.
D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department will temporarily be overseen by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the president said. He added that 800 National Guard troops will be deployed to deal with the 'dire public safety crisis' in the city.
Trump also zeroed in on D.C.'s homelessness problem, which, he argued, had made some of the capital's most important public spaces 'disgusting.'
'We're going to be removing homeless encampments from all over our parks — our beautiful, beautiful parks — which now a lot of people can't walk on,' he said.
Trump does have the power to oversee what happens in D.C. because of its unique role as home to the nation's seat of government. The law gives the president the power to temporarily take over the city's law enforcement operations. Trump did not say how long federal authorities would be in charge of D.C.'s police.
Trump invokes the Home Rule Act to take control of the Washington, D.C., police. What the act says he can and can't do.
What's happening with crime in D.C.?
The president's description of crime in Washington, D.C., is not reflected in official statistics, which show that the city had its lowest violent crime rate in 30 years in 2024. The rates of homicide, sex abuse, assault with a dangerous weapon and robbery all fell by at least 25% compared to 2023, according to statistics from the U.S. attorney's office for the district. The total number of nonviolent property crimes in D.C. also dropped last year, according to FBI data.
Year-over-year statistics only provide part of the picture. A longer timeline shows that D.C. — like the country as a whole — has gotten much safer over the course of the past several decades. In 1991, there were 482 homicides in the nation's capital, more than two and a half times as many as there were in 2024. It's not just homicides. The rate of violent crimes in D.C. has dropped by two-thirds since its peak in the early 1990s, according to FBI statistics compiled by data scientist Jeff Asher.
Over the same period, the number of nonviolent property crimes has been cut in half.
Like most of the rest of the nation, D.C. did see a spike in violent crime, particularly homicides, after the COVID-19 pandemic. The city's overall violent crime rate has dropped back down to pre-pandemic levels, but the number of homicides is still slightly elevated.
How does D.C. compare to other U.S. cities?
While Trump's claims about crime rates in the capital aren't consistent with official data, it is true that D.C. is one of the most dangerous cities in the country, at least in terms of homicide rate.
While its relatively small size meant that it had far fewer total homicides than metropolises like New York and Chicago, D.C. had the fourth-highest per-capita homicide rate of any major American city last year, according to a nationwide analysis conducted by researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
What about homelessness?
Washington, D.C., does face persistent challenges with homelessness. The question of whether the problem has gotten dramatically worse in the city depends in part on the timeline you look at.
This year's annual Point-in-Time count tallied just over 9,600 people experiencing homelessness across the city. That's a significant increase from 2022, when there were roughly 7,400 people counted.
If you look further back in time, however, even the elevated numbers from 2025 are still well below where they were throughout the 2010s, when the homeless count consistently topped 11,000.
D.C. is also not alone in seeing an increase in homelessness over the past few years. Nationwide, the total number of homeless people hit the highest level ever recorded due to a combination of inflation, wage stagnation and skyrocketing housing prices, according to federal data.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Here's what to know before Brevard's 2025-2026 school year kicks off Solve the daily Crossword
