DC Council Chairman Mendelson reacts to Trump’s federal takeover of DC police

WASHINGTON - Community leaders and residents are speaking out following President Donald Trump’s decision to place the D.C. police department under federal control.

FOX 5’s Maureen Umeh says city officials, advocacy groups, and residents are calling the move dangerous, unnecessary, and a direct assault on D.C.’s right to self-govern.

READ MORE: National Guard troops deploy in DC as Bowser meets with federal officials

Several leaders issued statements condemning the decision, including City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson who said the following:

DC COUNCIL STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO PRESIDENTIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

WASHINGTON, DC - This is a manufactured intrusion on local authority. Violent crime in the District is at the lowest rates we've seen in 30 years. Federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department is unwarranted because there is no Federal emergency. Further, the National Guard has no public safety training or knowledge of local laws. The Guard's role does not include investigating or solving crimes in the District. Calling out the National Guard is an unnecessary deployment with no real mission.

Public safety is built on trust, consistent enforcement, and community-based strategies. We must ensure that in our pursuit of safety, we do not create an atmosphere of surveillance, intimidation or unequal treatment under the law.

Our local police department is the best in the country, and it is our police officers who should be leading the efforts to keep our communities safe-not the National Guard. The President was unable to cite any evidence that our MPD is not able to do the job. Let's stay focused.

Our local government regularly partners with the federal government. The federal government plays a role through the United States Attorney's Office prosecuting violent crime, the Senate confirming judges to serve on our courts, the federal supervision agencies to follow up with people who are released on parole, and Congress passing a budget fix so that DC residents can spend their own tax dollars to pay our police and firefighters the wages they deserve. Taking over our police department and deploying hundreds of National Guard members is not the hard work of public safety - it is a show of force without impact.

It is our job to regularly look at our laws and ensure they are serving our residents' interests. That's what we did in 2024 when the Council came together to pass Secure DC, an omnibus with over 100 interventions to drive down crime. We did it again when the Council in June 2025 passed Peace DC legislation that puts the city on a path to more sustainable safety. And in the last two years where we have been laser focused on driving down crime, we have decreased violent crime by nearly 50% of what it was, yielding the lowest violent crime numbers our city has seen in 30 years.