Image source, Getty Images
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- Author, Lucy Gilder & Jake Horton
- Author's title, BBC Verify
President Donald Trump declared that he will deploy hundreds of soldiers of the National Guard in Washington DC and that he is taking control of his police department to fight against the crime.
In a press conference, Trump proclaimed the “Day of Liberation” of the city and promised to “rescue the capital of our nation from crime, blood spill, chaos, misery and worse things.”
However, the mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, said that the city has “experienced a huge decrease in crime” and that it was “at the lowest level of violent crimes in 30 years.”
BBC Verify examines what the figures on violent crimes show in the capital and how it compares with other cities in the United States.
Has violent crime increased in Washington DC?
Trump's executive order declared “a criminal emergency in the Columbia district” mentions “the increase in violence in the capital.” In his press conference he made repeated references that crime is “out of control.”
But according to the crime figures published by the Washington DC (MPDC) Metropolitan Police, violent crimes fell after reaching their maximum point in 2023 and in 2024 reached their lowest level in 30 years.
And according to preliminary data by 2025, they continue to go down.
Violent crime in general has declined 26% this year compared to the same point of 2024, and theft by 28%, according to the MPDC.
Trump and the DC Police Union questioned the veracity of the crime figures of the City Police Department.
Image source, Getty Images
The MPDC and the FBI, another of the main sources of statistics on crime in the US, report differently about violent crime.
Public MPDC data showed a 35% drop by 2024, while FBI data showed a 9% decrease.
Thus, the figures agree that crime is decreasing in DC, but differ at the level of that decrease.
The downward trend is “unequivocal and broad,” according to Adam Gelb, general director of the Criminal Justice Council (CCJ), a Justice Studies Center.
“The figures vary according to the period of time and the types of crimes that are examined,” says Gelb.
“But in general there is an unequivocal and large descent of violence since the summer of 2023, when there were homicide peaks, aggressions with firearm, robberies and theft of cars.”
And the murder rates?
Trump also said that “the murders in 2023 reached the highest rate that has probable have” in Washington DC, adding that the numbers “only date back to 25 years ago.”
When we asked the White House the source of the figures, they said they were “numbers provided by the FBI.”
The homicide rate was fired in 2023 until it was around 40 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest of the last 20 years, according to FBI data.
However, this figure is not the highest ever registered: it was significantly higher in the 1990s and the early 2000s.
The homicide rate fell in 2024 and this year has dropped 12% compared to the same point of the previous year, according to the MPDC.
The studies suggest that the homicide rate of the capital is higher than the average, if compared to other major US cities.
Until August 11, there were 99 homicides so far this year in Washington DC, including the death of a 21 -year congress fellow for cross shots, a case that Trump referred to in his press conference.
And cars robberies?
The president also mentioned the case of a former employee of the 19 -year -old government efficiency (Doge) department who was injured in an alleged attempted car theft in the capital in early August.
Trump said “the number of car theft has more than tripled” in the last five years.
So far this year, the MPDC has registered 189 vehicle theft crimes, compared to 300 of the same period last year.
According to the CCJ, car theft increased significantly from 2020 and reached a monthly peak of 140 incidents reported in June 2023.
Since July 2025, a curfew is in force throughout the city for children from 17 years from 23:00 to 06:00.
The measure was introduced to combat youth crime -including cars robberies -which is usually shot in the summer months.
How does crime compare with other parts of the US?
“The level of violence in the district remains mostly higher than the average of three tens of cities in our sample,” the CCJ expert told the BBC.
“Although its downward trend is consistent with what we are seeing in other large cities throughout the country,” he added.
The CCJ studies crime rates in 30 major American cities.
His analysis suggests that the homicide rate in DC descended 19% in the first half of this year (January-June of 2025), compared to the same period of the previous year.
It is a fall slightly higher than the average decrease of 17% registered in the cities of the CCJ study sample.
However, if the first six months of 2025 are taken and are compared to the same period of 2019-before the Covid-19 pandemic, only a 3% decrease in homicides is observed.
In the 30 cities of the study, that decrease was 14% in the same period.
This article was written and edited by our journalists with the help of an artificial intelligence tool for translation, as part of a pilot program.
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