Federal agents will be out 24/7 on patrol in Washington, the White House says

Washington also waited for caution, the White House promised to escalate from the National Guard forces and federal officials in the streets of the country’s capital around the clock starting on Wednesday, days after President Donald Trump’s unprecedented announcement that his administration will take over the city police administration for at least a month.

The mayor of the Democratic City marked a political rope, referring to the acquisition as a “authoritarian batch” at some point, then the officers’ pumping was framing as a batch of public safety, although there with a few standards for success. The Republican President said that the city’s crime was at emergency levels only that such a federal intervention could be suitable – even when the leaders of Colombia’s province indicated statistics showing a violent crime at its lowest level in 30 years after a sharp rise two years ago.

For two days, small groups of federal officers were clear in the areas scattered in the city. This is about to change, the administration says.

Agents from different agencies from a couple who were stopped outside the legal parking area while eating in McDonald, on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, in northwest Washington.

AP Photo/Jacquilyn Martin

It was expected that there was a “much higher” for the presence of guard members on Wednesday night, and the federal agents would be outside the day as well as at night, according to the White House. Hundreds of federal law enforcement officers and the city’s police who patrol the streets on Tuesday night to 43 arrests, compared to about twenty a night before.

Christina Henderson, a member of the Workers’ Council, reduced the arrest reports as a “group of traffic stations” and said that the administration was seeking to hide the necessary extent of this federal intervention.

“I look at this list of arrests and it seems like a regular Saturday night in any big city,” Henderson said.

In one of the neighborhoods, officers of the alcohol, tobacco office, firearms, explosives and FBI can be seen as well as the American Park Polita in search of a driver’s car parked outside the legal parking area for dining abroad and from a friend. Two blocks, customs officers and US border protection gathered in a car park before driving the car in a patrol.

In other parts of the city, including those who have hot points of popular nightlife, it was difficult to find federal patrols. At the National Commercial Center, there was little law enforcement activity, regardless of the Park Police Curtains who pulled over a taxi driver near Washington’s monument.

Unlike other American states, the law gives Trump the authority to seize Washington Police for up to 30 days. The expansion of its strength on the city for a longer period will require approval from Congress, and this may be difficult to face democratic resistance.

On Wednesday, Trump suggested that he could search for a longer period of control or decide to invite Congress to exercise power on the laws of the city that his administration sees as lean on the crime. “We will do it very quickly. But we want extensions. I don’t want to contact a national emergency. If you have to do so, I will do it,” he said.

Henderson, who worked for Senator Chuck Schumer from New York before running for the Capital Council, said it was already in contact with “friends on the hill” to mobilize opposition to any request to extend Trump. She added, “It is the third day and he already says that he will need more time?”

Targeting a variety of violations

The arrests of 1,450 federal and local officers all over the city included suspicion of its leadership under the impact and its illegal entry, in addition to the order of the attack with a fatal weapon, according to the White House. Seven illegal firearms were seized.

White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said there are now more than 100 detention operations since Trump began to promote federal law enforcement in Washington last week. “President Trump fulfills his campaign to clean this city and restore the American greatness to our dear capital,” she said.

The president has the full leadership of the National Guard, but as of Tuesday evening, guard members have not yet been appointed to a specific task, according to an official who was not allowed to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was expected that up to 800 soldiers in law enforcement support, although exactly the form that must be determined.

Trump said the batch also includes removing camps for homeless people. White House journalist Caroline Levitte said that Park in the United States has removed dozens of tents since March, and plans to take out two others this week. She said that people are given the opportunity to go to shelters and have addiction treatment, if necessary, but those who refuse or imprison them can be fined.

City officials said that they allow more space to resort and raise awareness.

Violent crime decreased in the area

The federal effort comes even after the decrease in violence crimes in the country’s capital, the trend that experts in cities throughout the United States have seen since an increase during the Korona virus.

On average, the level of violence in Washington is still higher than the averages in three dozens of cities analyzed by the non -profit council for criminal justice.

Police chief Pamela Smith said during an interview with the local Fox company that the city’s metro police department had decreased by nearly 800 officers. She said that the increase in the number of federal agents in the streets will help fill this gap, at least at the present time.

Mayor Morel Boser said that the city officials did not get any specific goals to rise during a meeting with the Public Prosecutor of Trump, Pam Bondi, and other senior federal law enforcement officials on Tuesday. But she said: “I think they consider this a success in getting more existence and taking more weapons from the street, and we also do.”

Trump’s moves previously described it as “disturbing and unprecedented” while it was indicating that he was among the president’s legal rights in relation to the region, which is the headquarters of the US government but not a state.

For some population, the increase in law enforcement forces and the National Guard forces is to overcome nerves.

“I saw them here on the subway … they had my street where I lived in yesterday’s ban,” said Shina Taylor from Washington. “It is more fearful now because although you are a citizen committed to the law, here in the capital, you do not know, especially because I am an African American.”

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The authors of the Associated Press Konstantin Torobin, Will Vicert, and Photographer Jacqueline Martin and video journalists River Chang contributed to this report.

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