DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Changes Tune, Admits Federal Surge Is Helping Significantly Reduce Crime

In a move that nobody could’ve seen coming, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged the reality that the Trump administration’s federal law enforcement surge is reducing crime, reversing her prior comments about the move being “unsettling and unprecedented.”

A truly unprecedented thing happened following her comment: the city, which has a murder rate among the highest in the country, going nearly two weeks without a single homicide. 

During a press conference on Wednesday, Bowser showed a chart that credited the influx of federal agents with bolstering local police’s efforts, adding "We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city."

"For carjackings, the difference between this period, this 20-day period of this federal surge and last year represents an 87% reduction in carjackings in Washington, D.C. We know that when carjackings go down, when use of gun goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer. So, this surge has been important to us for that reason,” Bowser admitted. 

"This is what we think in just a couple of weeks of experience has worked," she said. "Having more federal law enforcement officers on the street, we think having more stops that get illegal guns has helped. We think that there is more accountability in the system, or at least perceived accountability in the system, that is driving down illegal behavior. We know that we have had fewer gun crimes, fewer homicides, and we have experienced an extreme reduction in carjackings."

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She did criticize some police tactics, such as the presence of masking ICE agents, and she said that relying on out-of-state National Guard troops was inefficient. 

But after that, when asked by a reporter, she said she believed that Trump seizing greater control of Union Station would be a good thing. "The Union Station is owned by the Department of Transportation and it will be a good thing because that station has suffered from needing, some say $12 billion, but let’s call it at least $8 billion worth of investment in the renovation. And that is not something that the district will be able to support," she said. "It is an important regional asset, it is an important asset for the Eastern Seaboard. It’s an important asset for the nation. So, it is appropriate, in my view, for the federal government to make the necessary investments in the transformation of Union Station."

Bowser had previously claimed that crime was falling in recent years in DC in criticizing Trump’s takeover. However, Congress is now investigating allegations that DC police were manipulating crime data to try to make it appear lower. When it comes to crimes like homicide, which are far harder to misrepresent and reclassify in the statistics, Bowser and others were effectively bragging about having a murder rate 11 times the national average fall to 10 times the national average after the 2020-2021 crime surge fueled by the Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police movements, and enabled by weak-on-crime DAs.