The head of the D.C. Police Union praised President Trump’s temporary takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and deployment of National Guard troops as a “critical stopgap” amid “out of control” crime in the nation’s capital on Monday.
“We stand with the President in recognizing that Washington, D.C., cannot continue on this trajectory,” D.C. Police Union chairman Gregg Pemberton said in a statement. “Crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits.”
“The federal intervention is a critical stopgap, but the MPD needs proper staffing and support to thrive,” he added.
According to recent estimates, MPD’s force is about 500 officers short of its 4,000-officer allotment and is at its lowest staffing level in decades.
Critics of Trump’s move have pointed to falling crime rates in the District to knock the president’s sweeping moves to bolster local crimefighting efforts. But the D.C. Police Union, Trump and others have questioned the statistics that show decreases in violent crimes.
Pemberton, who has long been a critic of the D.C. Council’s policies, accused council members of driving out “our best officers and hinder(ing) recruitment” with the passage of the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act of 2020.
“No one on the Council has the courage to repeal this, or any of the other 26 sections that destroyed our police department,” the D.C. Police Union wrote on X on Thursday regarding the reform law’s COVID-19 provision that allow masks to be worn in public.
