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The chair of the D.C. Police Union threw his support behind President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of law enforcement in the nation’s capital, but warned that the administration’s actions are only a short-term remedy.
“President Donald Trump’s takeover this month of the D.C. police was a drastic but necessary step. On its own, however, it won’t be enough to turn around a force in free fall,” D.C. detective Gregg Pemberton wrote Friday in an op-ed published by The Washington Post.
Pemberton called Trump’s deployment of the National Guard a “critical stopgap” and noted the “positive results” that have taken place over the past week, but stressed, “Federal control is not a long-term solution.”
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Instead, Pemberton suggested the onus is on the “misguided ‘reform’ agenda” of the D.C. Council, who he says should be thanked for Trump’s policing takeover.
“Unlike most of the country, the D.C. Council still embraces reactionary anti-police thinking. Council members have passed a slew of bills that prioritized wrongheaded ideology over safety, both yours and that of officers whose duty it is to protect you. Chief among those was the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act, which Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) vetoed and Congress, including a Senate controlled by Democrats, sought to repeal,” Pemberton wrote.
“The Policing and Justice Reform Act includes many harmful measures. It stripped officers of collective bargaining rights, eviscerated due process protections and replaced the ‘objective reasonableness’ standard for the use of force with a hindsight-driven ‘totality of the circumstances’ review. That creates a recipe for disaster: hesitation in life-and-death situations,” he continued.
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The union chief lamented weak personnel staffing, saying the Metropolitan Police Department lost more than 600 officers since 2020. While its “authorized strength is 4,000 sworn members,” they currently only have 3,181.
“Worse, personnel who remain on the job are treated like pariahs, not public servants. Recruitment has cratered, and resignations are increasingly common,” Pemberton wrote. “Officers are burning out from unsustainable workloads. In fiscal 2024, D.C. police logged 1.8 million overtime hours, which cost taxpayers nearly $134 million. That’s more than four times the average before myriad ‘police reform’ policies advanced by the council took effect.”
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Pemberton also took a swipe at Democrats who’ve touted that crime is down, which is now the subject of an investigation following allegations the D.C. crime stats were manipulated.
“In recent years, homicide totals have been double what they were a decade ago,” Pemberton told readers. “From 2021 to 2024, the District averaged more than 200 homicides per year. A decade ago, from 2011 to 2014, the average was about 100.”
He concluded, “The president’s takeover validates what our union has been saying for five years: D.C. police cannot function under current conditions. The D.C. Police Union stands ready to collaborate with all stakeholders for a safer city. But the D.C. Council must act now: Repeal the Policing and Justice Reform Act, invest in our force and let us do our jobs.”
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