WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is expected to allow President Donald Trump’s temporary takeover of Washington’s police department to expire next week as the 30-day limit comes to an end and Mayor Muriel Bowser pledges to maintain close coordination with federal law enforcement.
Trump took control of the Metropolitan Police Department in August in addition to deploying hundreds of National Guard troops, saying he was going to “take our capital back” from criminals. He invoked a section of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in an executive order to declare a “crime emergency” so his administration could temporarily take over the police force for 30 days. That order expires on Sept. 10.
Congress would have to approve an extension, and Republicans on Capitol Hill have no plans to do so in the next week. Still, House Republicans plan to move forward with a raft of bills that would tighten federal control over the city, including tougher sentences for criminals and a Trump-led effort to “beautify the district” by removing graffiti and restoring public monuments.
Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said that “together with President Trump,” the panel will “fulfill its constitutional duty to oversee District affairs and make D.C. safe again.”
Bowser issued an order last week to continue the work of an emergency operations center that the city set up in response to the law enforcement surge. The mayor said police would work with federal law enforcement agencies and credited the surge with bringing down the level of crime in the city, including an 87 percent drop in carjackings.
GOP leaders in the House and Senate haven’t seen a reason to act, given that Bowser is working with federal authorities, according to aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, and Trump has so far not publicly urged them to seek an extension.
Congressional Democrats have protested the takeover. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city’s nonvoting representative, has pushed legislation to give the city full control of its police department. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen introduced a similar bill in the Senate, saying that Trump is “playing dictator in our nation’s capital.”
Bowser did not give a timeline for the coordination with federal agencies. She said that “neighborhoods feel safer” when carjackings go down. But she also said at the end of August that the presence of masked agents who were not always identifiable had led to a “break in trust between, police and community, especially with new federal partners.”
The city has use of the National Guard in Washington, asking a federal court to intervene. Brian Schwalb, the district’s elected attorney general, said in a lawsuit that the deployment is an illegal use of the military — some of whom are carrying firearms — for domestic law enforcement. Groups of Washington residents have protested the takeover as videos of arrests and detainments have circulated on social media.
Trump and Republicans have portrayed the takeover as transformative for the city. He said last week that the city was safe and that restaurants were enjoying booming business. “We have no crime,” he asserted flatly. “You’re not going to be shot.”
National Guard troops are expected to stay in the city through later this year, including those sent by Republican-led states. How long those troops, which number around 1,340, remain in the nation’s capital is up to their individual governors.
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Konstantin Toropin and Gary Fields contributed to this report.
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