Jillian Snider, a retired officer from the New York Police Department, began working on a group of experts in the Washington center, DC, four years ago. At that time, in the heyday of the pandemic, the area had a very different sensation.
“You couldn’t walk on 14th Street or 16th Street near the White House without seeing much disorder, many camps for homeless people,” Snider recalled. “Today is much cleaner. You feel much safer.”
Snider is among a half dozen experts in surveillance and military who told NBC News that they were perplexed by the unprecedented decision of President Donald Trump to take care of the Metropolitan Police Department and order the National Guard to help fight the crime in Washington, DC.
On the one hand, they point out that the crime is at its lowest level in decades in the capital of the nation. At the beginning of January, federal prosecutors in Washington published a press release with the subject line: “violent crime in DC reaches 30 years of minimum.” And since then, 26%have collapsed, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
However, Trump portrayed DC on Monday as an infernal landscape of the crime and said that Attorney General Pam Bondi “would take command of the Metropolitan Police Department from this moment.”
When presenting his case, Trump marked recent violent incidents in Washington, including the fatal shooting of a Congress intern and the trial of Edward Coristine’s car, an original employee of the Efficiency Department of the Government known online as “Big Bases.”
“Our capital has been overcome by violent and criminal gangs thirsty for blood, which went to wild youth turbs, drugged the maniacs and homeless people,” Trump said.
A high police officer told NBC News that an initial federal effort this weekend was chaotic. Up to 120 FBI agents, mainly from the FBI field office in Washington, worked shifts with the Metropolitan Police Department this weekend, said the official. But the agents were confused about their exact role in the streets and who reported at a given time.
A second federal official said the confusion continued on Monday. “No one knows who is in charge or what they are supposed to do,” said the official.
Federal vehicles of application of the law not marked are delaying patrol cars in Washington to provide support if necessary, said another federal official. Some agents ruled out such efforts a waste of resources, and one jokes to the processions “a federal funeral”.
A remarkable group, the DC police union said it supports the president’s acquisition, which says that the department has been harassed by “chronic poor management” and “personnel shortage.”
“The union agrees that the crime is out of control, and the immediate action is necessary to restore public security,” he said in a statement. “However, we emphasize that federal intervention must be a temporary measure, with the ultimate goal of training a fully personalized and supported MPD to protect our city effectively.”
Concern for former bosses
The announcement of the federal acquisition was received with alarm by Art Acevedo, a retired police chief who directed departments in Houston, Austin and Miami.
“Not only is it not precedents, it is unjustified,” said Acevedo. “There is no reason for this more than the political optics requested by the administration to pretend that the crime is out of control and they are the saviors.”
Trump said he had appointed the administrator of the drug control administration, Terry Cole, as head of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Cole will inform Bondi, but it is not clear if Cole will bring his own staff to manage the various divisions of the Police Department of the Office of approximately 3,500.
In his own press conference later in the day, Mayor Muriel Bowser described Trump’s actions “disturbing and unprecedented.” DC Attorney General Brian Schwab had also exploited the move and said he was exploring legal options, but Bowser acknowledged that Trump had the authority to temporarily take control of the police department.
She pointed out, however, that “nothing about our organizational table has changed.”
Trump must notify certain members of the Congress within 48 hours on the reason to assume control of the police and the estimated schedule for federal control, in accordance with the Law of the DC Start Rule. The law also indicates that Trump can take control of the DC police for 30 days, unless the Congress authorizes an extension.
Flooding the streets
Surveillance experts interviewed by NBC News pointed out that crime is a nuanced problem that requires a multifaceted solution that includes the strengthening of social services.
“Simply flooding the streets of DC with the application of the law” and “taking care of the Local Police of DC, seems a half idea that seeks a problem,” said Donell Harvin, a former head of National Security and Intelligence Security for Washington, DC, in MSNBC.
Snider, the retired police officer in New York, said that local police agencies are much better equipped to address local crime than federal agencies or the National Guard.
“They know the players. They know the streets. They know where violence occurs,” said Snider, who is an attached professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and a director of Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties Policies at the R Street Institute, a group of DC experts in DC
“Any help from federal agents or the National Guard must be support measures,” Snider added. “They should not enter and take care of local surveillance.”
Acevedo, the retired police chief, said the administration could have an impact on crime by reserving more money for local application, as it has done for migrant repression.
“If the administration really wanted to make a difference at the state and local level and help make the communities safer, it is as simple as increasing the total dollar investment of the federal budget for the local police to recruit, train, equip and retain the best and the brightest to serve as peace officers,” he said.
Trump’s inclination for calling military personnel to address domestic disturbances is well established. He did it five years ago during George Floyd’s protests. And just this summer, he ordered the National Guard and the Marines of Active Service to Los Angeles to help to quell large -scale protests caused by increased immigration raids.
But the National Guard has no arrest powers, so there is a limit of how involved they can be in the fight against crime in DC
The retired colonel of the Army Jack Jacobs said that the National Guard troops are usually better trained than active service soldiers to help in urban environments for things like the control of the crowd.
“But they are not trained to do the things that the police do, which is A, Patrol, and B, they investigate,” said Jacobs, news analyst at the NBC, in an interview. “In my opinion, this is mainly theater, and nothing necessarily uses it.”
Questions about January 6
The acquisition of Trump of the DC Police Force occurs several months after forgiving some 1,500 people convicted of crimes, some of them violent, in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Daniel Hodges, one of the dozens of officers of the Metropolitan Police Department who were brutalized during the riots and whose assailants were among those Trump forgave on his return to office, woke up with the news that Trump had assumed the MPD after working a night shift.
“It’s a great photograph. Nothing is going to change,” said Hodges, speaking while he is out of service in his personal capacity.
Hodges, who was in the National Guard for six years, said the National Guard members are not trained in the Local Police. While DC had problems application of the law that could be addressed better, Hodges said, he does not believe that Bondi has a great vision of how to display MPD officers.
“It’s terrible, it’s disgusting,” Hodges added, “but it’s not a surprise.”
