Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Union Chairman Greggory Pemberton offered his full support for President Donald Trump’s plan to bring in more federal law enforcement assets, including the National Guard.
“We completely agree with the President that the crime in the District of Columbia is out of control and something needs to be done,” Pemberton told Fox News Monday.
The union chief says the issue goes back to 2020, when the district’s city council got caught up in the “reforms” following the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.
“In 2020, the D.C. city council passed an enormous amount of legislation that handcuffed police officers, exposes them to administrative, civil, and even criminal liability, even when they do their jobs properly,” Pemberton said.
He noted that the D.C. police department is authorized to have 4,000 officers, but currently only has 3,180, so there are over 800 vacancies.
“The fact that we need help from federal law enforcement and maybe even the National Guard shouldn’t come as a surprise,” Pemberton said.
On Monday, Trump announced he is placing the D.C. police department under Attorney General Pam Bondi’s control.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse. This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re gonna take our capital back. We’re taking it back,” Trump said in remarks from the White House briefing room, flanked by Bondi and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, among others.
“Under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States, I’m officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act … and placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control,” the president continued. He can do so for up to 30 days without congressional approval.
Trump further announced that he is deploying 800 soldiers from the D.C. National Guard to assist in restoring order.