Looking to solidify the progress made by President Donald Trump’s successful surge of federal law enforcement officers into Washington, House Republicans passed two crime bills this week that, if passed by the Senate and signed into law by Trump, would undo much of the damage caused by soft-on-crime Democrats in the District of Columbia over the last decade.
Metropolitan Police Department figures show that, year over year, violent crime has been cut in half during Trump’s surge, with burglaries down 48% and car thefts down 36%. While it is true that crime was trending down before the Trump surge, crime was still far too high in Washington, which had a murder rate three times that of New York.
Alongside the assault of a Department of Government Efficiency staffer in Logan Circle, Reps. Angie Craig (D-MN) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX) have recently been victims of violent crime. Craig was attacked in her elevator, and Cuellar was carjacked. A congressional intern was murdered in Washington this summer. No federal employee or elected representative should be expected to work in conditions this dangerous.
The district is safer than it was at the height of the crack epidemic, but many of the policies put in place to restore order were undone after the George Floyd riots of 2020. In 2022, the D.C. Council passed the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act, which banned police from pursuing fleeing suspects, banned the use of pepper spray and nonlethal projectiles, restricted police from using force when apprehending suspects, forbade police from watching body camera footage before filing police reports, and restricted recruitment of new officers from other jurisdictions.
The House Common Sense Law Enforcement Accountability Now Act repealed the council’s 2022 statute and reformed the bail system, forcing the city’s famously lenient judges to detain those charged with violent crimes till trial or force them to post bond.
“Too many Americans in the District of Columbia have been subjected to violence at the hands of dangerous criminals, especially repeat criminals who have been allowed to walk free,” House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said. “The Metropolitan Police Department should be able to do its job and protect Americans without fear of retribution, loss of retention among officers, and recruitment crises stemming from lack of support. The bills passed in the House build on President Trump’s promise to restore law and order to D.C., keep violent criminals off the streets, and defend residents and visitors alike from the chaos caused by the D.C. Council’s radical policies.”
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The bill passed the House on a strong bipartisan basis with close to two dozen Democrats joining Republicans for final passage. Just seven Democratic senators need to join the 53 Republican senators to send the bill to Trump’s desk. Even if the bill does not pass, it will put Senate Democrats on record as supporting soft-on-crime, nonpursuit, catch-and-release policies.
Ideally, Trump and the Republicans in Congress would not need to supersede local control and force strict law-and-order policies on voters in the district. Unfortunately, the reality is that the Democratic Party has proven incapable of delivering urban law and order, and while that might be regarded by some as acceptable in other cities such as Chicago or Los Angeles, Washington is the nation’s capital and the Constitution specifically gives the federal government the ultimate police power over the federal enclave for the express purpose of creating a safe haven where Congress can do the people’s business.
