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FBI Director Kash Patel endorsed President Donald Trump’s plans to take over the Metropolitan Police Division to sort out crime in Washington D.C., amid heavy criticism from Democrats and native officers who say the transfer is a part of an influence seize.
Patel was seen Monday afternoon inside a command submit for the primary night time of the short-term takeover in a present of assist for legislation enforcement.
“Proud to face shoulder to shoulder with the women and men who preserve our nation’s capital secure,” Patel mentioned in an unique assertion to Fox Information Digital. “Once you let good cops be cops, give them the instruments they want, and again them each step of the way in which, they ship – each time.”
In images completely offered to Fox Information Digital, Patel may be seen talking Monday to FBI and Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) personnel carrying protecting vests at a command middle at a U.S. Park Police station.
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FBI Director Kash Patel with FBI brokers in Washington, D.C. on August 11 exterior the Park Police Station, the command middle for the Trump administration’s new crackdown on crime within the nation’s capital. (Courtesy: FBI, completely offered to Fox Information Digital)
On Monday, Trump mentioned he would federalize the police division and place it underneath the authority of U.S. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi in an effort to handle crime. He additionally mentioned he was activating roughly 800 Nationwide Guard troops to “reestablish legislation, order and public security” within the capital.
Washington D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser referred to as the transfer “unsettling and unprecedented.”
“Whereas this motion in the present day is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that given a number of the rhetoric of the previous, that we’re completely stunned,” Bowser mentioned throughout a information convention. “I can say to D.C. residents that we are going to proceed to function our authorities in a approach that makes you proud.”
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The District of Columbia Dwelling Rule Act permits Trump to put the town’s police division underneath federal management for as much as 30 days. Bowser famous that granting D.C. statehood, a problem native officers have repeatedly advocated for, might have prevented the takeover.
“If individuals are involved concerning the president with the ability to transfer the Nationwide Guard into our metropolis, the time to try this would have been when the Congress had a invoice that it might have given management of the D.C. Nationwide Guard to D.C.,” she mentioned. “So there are issues that, when a metropolis shouldn’t be a state, and never absolutely autonomous, and doesn’t have senators, that the federal authorities can do.”
FBI Director Kash Patel with FBI brokers in Washington, D.C. because the Trump administration prepares to take over D.C. police. (Courtesy: FBI, completely offered to Fox Information Digital)
Different Democrats closely criticized the Trump administration for the transfer.
“If President Trump needs to assist make Chicago safer, he can begin by releasing the funds for anti-violence packages which have been crucial to our work to drive down crime and violence,” the workplace of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson mentioned. “Sending within the nationwide guard would solely serve to destabilize our metropolis and undermine our public security efforts.”
The Washington, D.C. Metropolis Council referred to as the short-term takeover a “manufactured intrusion on native authority.”
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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters within the James Brady Press Briefing Room on the White Home, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington as from left, Secretary of the Inside Doug Burgum, Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth, Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, look on. (AP Picture/Alex Brandon)
“Violent crime within the District is on the lowest charges we’ve seen in 30 years. Federalizing the Metropolitan Police Division is unwarranted as a result of there is no such thing as a Federal emergency,” the council mentioned in a joint assertion. “Additional, the Nationwide Guard has no public security coaching or data of native legal guidelines. The Guard’s position doesn’t embrace investigating or fixing crimes within the District. Calling out the Nationwide Guard is an pointless deployment with no actual mission.”
The Nationwide Capital Area Delegation, a physique comprised of a number of Home Democratic lawmakers, accused Trump of personally inciting crime within the capital, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot on the U.S. Capitol constructing.
FBI Director Kash Patel spoke with FBI brokers because the Trump administration federalizes the Metropolitan Police Division. (Courtesy: FBI, completely offered to Fox Information Digital)
“Trump’s ‘short-term’ takeover of the Metropolitan Police Division shouldn’t be supposed to stop crime, it’s a tender launch of authoritarianism,” the group mentioned in a press release. “Trump has a longstanding sample of in search of showy shows of energy. As he has proven repeatedly, Trump is working to serve himself and isn’t involved with conserving American households secure in cities and cities throughout our nation.”
“The President’s announcement this morning is an unserious and unacceptable publicity stunt,” they added. “If he needs to cut back crime within the District of Columbia, he ought to deal with getting his Republican allies in Congress to revive the funding they arbitrarily stripped out of the town’s finances, which dangers cuts to legislation enforcement and different public security measures.”
FBI Director Kash Patel with FBI brokers in Washington, D.C. on August 11 exterior the Park Police Station, the command middle for the Trump administration’s new crackdown on crime within the nation’s capital. (Courtesy: FBI, completely offered to Fox Information Digital)
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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Academics union, referred to as Trump’s announcement a “gross overreach, disconnected from precise circumstances on the bottom.”
“So, we’ve to ask: Will the president’s heavy-handed present of pressure make the typical D.C. resident really feel safer? Will it create jobs for working folks and convey patrons again to downtown companies?” she mentioned. “Will it present younger folks a pathway to jobs, abilities or different actions that preserve them off the streets?”
FBI Director Kash Patel met with brokers earlier than the DC police takeover. (Courtesy: FBI, completely offered to Fox Information Digital)
“The reply to these questions is ‘no,’ she added. “That’s why this transfer is yet one more crass spectacle from a president who cares extra about concentrating on, intimidating and taking part in king than the security of D.C. and its residents.”
Trump’s opponents have cited crime statistics displaying crime in Washington is on the decline. Crime in Washington is down 26% this 12 months in comparison with the identical timeframe in 2024, in keeping with the MPD. Assaults with a harmful weapon are down 20%, and homicides are down by 12%, in keeping with police knowledge. In January, the Justice Division mentioned violent crime in 2024 within the district was down 35% from 2023, the bottom it has been in over 30 years.
Nevertheless, Trump disagrees.
Metropolitan Police Division knowledge exhibits that whereas the murder charge is falling, the final 5 years noticed the best variety of murders since 2008.
“The homicide charge in Washington in the present day is larger than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico Metropolis, a number of the locations that you just hear about as being the worst locations on Earth, a lot larger,” Trump mentioned Monday. “That is a lot larger. The variety of automotive thefts has doubled over the previous 5 years, and the variety of carjackings has greater than tripled. Murders in 2023 reached the very best charge, most likely ever. They are saying 25 years, however they do not know what which means as a result of it simply goes again 25 years cannot be worse.”
Fox Information Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
