As President Donald Trump looks to crack down on crime within Washington, D.C., by sending in federal law enforcement to patrol the city, data reveals the nation’s capital is plagued by violent crime when compared to other metropolitan areas around the country.
In a news conference Monday, Trump announced he is planning to deploy members of the National Guard to the city’s streets while taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in an effort to restore safety and combat violence.
"You can be anything you want, but you want to have safety in the streets," Trump said. "You want to be able to leave your apartment or your house where you live and feel safe and go into a store to buy a newspaper or buy something, and you don’t have that now."
The move comes as the nation’s capital "averaged one of the highest robbery and murder rates of large cities nationwide," according to an executive order, "Declaring a Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia."
"Indeed, the District of Columbia now has a higher violent crime, murder, and robbery rate than all 50 states, recording a homicide rate in 2024 of 27.54 per 100,000 residents," the order states.
