(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump has ordered federal law enforcement to begin patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C., to crack down on crime, NewsNation has learned.
Federal officers in marked units will be stationed across D.C. in an operation that will be begin as a seven-day effort with the option to extend as needed, a White House official tells NewsNation.
Led by the U.S. Park Police, they’ll descend on the streets at midnight following an 11 p.m. roll call.
The increase in federal law enforcement comes as part of Trump’s March Executive Order establishing the Making DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force. It aims to improve public safety and will be focused on high traffic tourist areas and other hotspots.
Calls to address crime grew this week after a prominent member of the Department of Government Efficiency was beaten in an attempted carjacking at 3 a.m. Sunday.
Two 15-year-olds have been arrested in connection with the attack on Edward Coristine, nicknamed “Big Balls,” in the city’s Logan Circle neighborhood. Trump described crime in D.C. as “out of control” after the attack.
“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.
On Thursday afternoon, NewsNation spoke one-on-one with White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller and asked him if the Trump administration was going to federalize the police in D.C.
“The president has been very clear that he’s going to take the action necessary,” Miller said. “To secure the city of Washington for the people who live here, for all the American people and all who visit here, it’s our capital city.
“It is more violent than Baghdad. It is more violent than parts of Ethiopia, parts of many of the most dangerous places in the world.”
Law enforcement agencies participating in the seven-day operation include:
- Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD)
- Amtrak Police Department (APD)
- United States Capitol Police (USCP)
- Metro Police Department (MPD)
- Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
- Federal Protective Service (FPS)
- Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)
- Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)
- United States Marshals Service (USMS)
- United States Attorney’s Office – District of Columbia (DDC)
- Department of Interior (DOI)
- Pre-Trial Services Agency (PSA)
- Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA)