Heavy-Handed Theatrics Are No Substitute for Effective Crime-Fighting - Horowitz

Heavy-Handed Theatrics Are No Substitute for Effective Crime-Fighting - Horowitz

If President Trump were serious about reducing crime in Washington, D.C, he would have worked cooperatively with Mayor Bowser and the city’s highly regarded police chief, Pamela Smith, to develop a coordinated approach centered around specific crime reduction goals.  

 

One proven way of ensuring that flooding the zone with federal law enforcement personnel will achieve lasting results, for example, is to establish a joint federal and local crime task force.  This coordination vehicle ensures that the addition of FBI agents and other federal law enforcement resources amplifies the ongoing efforts of local police, as well as prevents duplication of effort and working at cross purposes. These joint task forces have facilitated well-targeted initiatives that have proven effective in cities throughout the nation in taking on juvenile crime, curbing carjackings, limiting gang violence, and expanding law enforcement presence in high-crime neighborhoods.  

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Before his heavy-handed media conference announcing a federal takeover of law enforcement in D.C., the president neither sought to establish a task force nor proactively pursued any other kind of cooperative approach.  In fact, he did not even give local officials and law enforcement the courtesy of a heads-up.

 

Instead, flanked by his attorney general and secretary of defense, Mr. Trump falsely described our nation’s capital as a dystopian hellscape, asserted that crime was getting worse when there have been marked reductions, and exceeded his authority in announcing he was “placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.” The president’s overreach became evident later in the week when a federal judge rejected Mr. Trump’s move to replace the local police chief with his head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), forcing Attorney General Pam Bondi to agree to walk it back.

 

In another counter-productive action, the president deployed 800 National Guard troops and paved the way for a further step-up in military presence on the streets of our nation’s capital by enlisting the help of red state governors to send additional National Guard troops. While this move is within his legal authority, it is a divisive step with no clear law enforcement benefit that is likely to discourage the active community cooperation essential to successful crime reduction.  This authoritarian federal muscle-flexing of sending in military troops untrained in police work is far more performative than substantive.

 

Despite the significant reductions in violent crime in our nation’s capital over the past 3 years or so, there remains a long way to go to achieve true public safety.  A true federal/local law enforcement partnership to accelerate the progress would pay dividends in safer streets and improved quality of life.  Unfortunately, most of what President Trump has provided so far is heavy-handed theatrics that stand in the way of effective law enforcement.

 

Our nation’s capital deserves better.