In August 2025, President Donald Trump deployed 800 National Guardsmen to Washington, D.C., as part of his plan for "restoring law and order" in the city. In the 10 months since, this number has ballooned to 2,673 troops. While crime in the city has dropped significantly, a new study from the Niskanen Center suggests that the city's police department could have achieved the same result for far less money.
So far in 2026, D.C. has seen a 2 percent reduction in violent crime and a 25 percent reduction in property crime, according to the latest available data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). The president has attributed D.C.'s drop in crime to the presence of the National Guard in the city during the decline, but the city's police officers seem to have been the driving force behind the change.
