WASHINGTON, D.C. – Although President Trump recently invoked the Home Rule Act to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy the National Guard—citing a “rising crime emergency”—new data tell a different story of a capital in decline rather than crisis. The Council on Criminal Justice Mid‑Year 2025 Crime Trends brief, released this July, finds that crime in Washington has steadily fallen in eight key categories, from homicide to carjacking, continuing a downward trajectory dating to the summer of 2023 and extending through June 2025
In 2024, violent crime in D.C. hit a 30‑year low, with a 35 % drop overall. Homicides fell 32 %, armed carjackings plummeted 53 %, assaults with dangerous weapons dropped 27 %, and burglaries reached their lowest levels in decades, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office analysis of Metropolitan Police data Department of Justice. A Center for American Progress review of MPD figures adds that, compared with 2023, homicides declined 32 %, violent crime fell 40 %, all crime categories dropped 14 %, property crime decreased 11 %, and carjackings declined nearly 50 % in 2024—reductions observed across all eight wards of the city
More broadly, CCJ data show that across 42 major U.S. cities, homicides and several other serious offenses, including gun assaults and carjackings, declined in the first half of 2025—continuing nationwide downward trends that began in 2022, according to Stateline. At the national level, the FBI confirms violent crime fell 4.5 % in 2024, with murder down nearly 15 %, robbery down almost 9 %, and property crime down over 8 %—marking the lowest property crime rate since 1961
Despite the significant crime reductions, President Trump has maintained that crime in D.C. is out of control, even equating its murder rate with cities like Bogotá and Mexico City—a claim widely disputed by legal experts and media fact‑checkers. Trump has also sought to extend federal control of D.C.’s police force beyond the 30‑day emergency limit, offering a potential national emergency as a workaround, though his proposal faces skepticism from critics and lawmakers.
City officials have pushed back. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Council have questioned the necessity of federal intervention, pointing to the dramatic declines in violent crime and warning against politicized overreach . Meanwhile, more modest measures—including a tightened youth curfew beginning at 11 p.m. and extended pre‑trial detention policies—were enacted by the D.C. Council in July 2025 to help sustain gains in public safety.
In sum, the data from the Council on Criminal Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, MPD, and national agencies illustrate a capital that is becoming safer—not more dangerous. Yet the federal response, grounded in assertions of crisis, runs counter to the evidence of a steep and sustained crime decline.
Once again we know the crime statistics for Washington D.C. are not to be believed, it’s all smoke and mirrors:
“Leaders of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department were accused of rigging the city’s crime stats as early as 2019.”
“The accusations raise questions about a narrative that has dominated mainstream media reports in the wake of Trump’s crackdown: that violent crime in the nation’s capital is at a 30-year low. The claim, regurgitated in recent New York Times, Washington Post, and Politico coverage, stems from a January press release from former president Joe Biden’s Justice Department, which lauded D.C. for reporting “the fewest assaults with dangerous weapons and burglaries in over 30 years.”
https://freebeacon.com/crime/dc-police-leaders-stand-accused-of-manipulating-data-to-make-violent-crime-appear-lower-heres-how-it-happens/
That and people not bothering to report crime, both because the cops don’t respond and dispatchers cop a ‘tude.
Violent crime is down in most major cities across the nation since the pandemic. The notion that this is all due to statistical manipulation is not in evidence.
Just one example of many showing the trends: https://majorcitieschiefs.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/MCCA-Violent-Crime-Report-2025-and-2024-First-Quarter.pdf
Attacking the data and the messengers has become a reflexive response of this administration and its supporters. There is no statistical justification for using federal troops in our cities, and it sets a terrible precedent. It’s allowed in DC, within limits. But it’s worth noting that the budget of the DC police department is controlled by Congress and the executive branch, so if they believe more police are needed in the nation’s capital, they are uniquely situated to fund more police officers there. Instead, House Republicans took $1 billion away from the DC budget this year.
When you are citing free Bacon as your authoritative sources, though it were definitive, it’s not a serious engagement
I get it, that’s just one of several articles on this topic of DC Police fudging the numbers. Do you want me to post more links?
BUT next time I call out your left wing sources and/or progressive think tanks don’t get BUTT hurt.