Trump sends FBI to patrol DC, despite falling crime

FBI agents patrol Washington, D.C., at night

Violent crime in D.C. fell 35% last year, to the lowest level in three decades

(Image credit: Andrew Leyden / Getty Images)

What happened

President Donald Trump has reassigned up to 120 FBI agents to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., at night for at least a week, The Washington Post and The New York Times said Sunday.

Who said what

D.C. "has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world," Trump said Saturday on social media. "It will soon be one of the safest!!!" Trump has "repeatedly slammed" Washington as "unsafe, filthy and badly run," The Associated Press said, but Mayor Muriel Bowser's government can "legitimately claim to have reduced the number of homicides and carjackings, both of which spiked in 2023."

Violent crime in D.C. fell 35% last year, to the lowest level in three decades, and is down another 26% so far this year, according to D.C. Metropolitan Police data. If Trump's "priority is to show force in an American city, we know he can do that here," Bowser said on MSNBC Sunday. "But it won't be because there's a spike in crime."

The reassigned FBI agents are drawn mostly from the Washington Field Office's counterintelligence, public corruption and other divisions and have "minimal training in traffic stops," the Post said, and "little expertise or training in thwarting carjackers." The "roughly 900" FBI agents redeployed for immigration enforcement in recent months have similarly found it "challenging" to "make meaningful contributions" to their assignments, the Times said.

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What next?

Trump was expected to elaborate on his plans Monday at a press conference he said would be on "Crime and 'Beautification'" in the capital.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.