Pam Bondi, newly appointed to lead Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, previewed a sweeping and aggressive anti-crime strategy Monday as the White House announced an unprecedented federal intervention in the capital’s local policing.
The move comes as President Donald Trump ordered the federalization of D.C.’s police department, deploying 800 National Guard members to assist with enforcement. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said troops would be on the streets “in the coming week” and could be supplemented by additional Guard units and specialized forces if needed.
Bondi, the United States Attorney General, will oversee the department alongside new Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole, whom Trump named interim federal commissioner of MPD. The federal takeover does not remove authority from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser or the city council, but it places federal officials in key operational roles.
Essentially, the plan grants National Guard troops the authority to enforce federal laws after being deputized by the U.S. Marshals Service. Once this happens they’ll be able to police federal and local laws. How will they be placed through the city? No one knows. Or at least no one’s saying.
For weeks, speculation had mounted over whether Trump would make good on threats to assume control of D.C.’s police, a promise he repeated after the high-profile assault of a former staffer in the U Street area. The president framed the move as necessary to address what he called spiraling violence in the city.
During the White House press conference, Bondi saud that this is the beginning of an era of a no tolerance approach the crime. She says that she’ll use every power available to her – including the coordinated efforts of the FBI, U.S. Marshals, ATF, and the Army to make the city safer. She’s specifically focusing on juvenile crime, which she feels is “out of control.”
The initiative will also target violent incidents that have drawn local outrage, including the fatal beating of a disabled man by teenage girls and a recent public fentanyl overdose in the Wharf area.
Even though Bondi wants D.C. citizens to feel safe, some locals are wary of the scope of federal control taking over the area. Critics point to the lack of coordination with city officials and the symbolic weight of bringing in troops to patrol the nation’s capital.
The effort marks one of the most significant federal interventions in D.C.’s law enforcement in modern history — one that Bondi promised would “make D.C. beautiful” and “safe again,” even as questions remain about how the plan will be carried out on the ground.
