Tensions grow as Trump and Washington, D.C. officials fight over police authority

WASHINGTON — Tension in the nation’s capital escalated Friday over the question of who controls the city’s metropolitan police department after Washington D.C.’s Attorney General filed a federal lawsuit challenging the White House’s bid for full control.

“These unlawful assertions of authority will create immediate, devastating, and irreparable harms for the District,” AG Brian Schwalb said in his legal filing. “Most critically, the order threatens to upend the command structure of MPD and wreak operational havoc within the department, endangering the safety of the public and law enforcement officers alike.”

Local officials were clearly struggling to avoid this kind of clash. When President Trump said he was demanding authority over Washington D.C. law enforcement on Monday, Mayor Muriel Bowser signaled that the city’s leaders would comply with the emergency declaration by following White House directives.

But Bowser and Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith insisted operational control would remain in their hands.

Then late Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi triggered this latest escalation by moving to appoint an “emergency police commissioner,” giving the job to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s top official, Terry Cole.

Bondi’s order stated that “Commissioner Cole shall assume all of the powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police.”

Despite violent crime in the city reaching a 30-year low, Trump argued this week that the city is at-risk of becoming a “wasteland.”

“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” Trump said.

The federal lawsuit filed Friday by Schwalb claims that Trump’s sweeping claim of federal power over local police is a clear violation of DC’s Home Rule charter, established by Congress. He’s asked the federal court to issue an injunction blocking the Trump administration’s power play.

In a statement posted on social media Thursday, Mayor Bowser also rejected Bondi’s bid for full authority over policing.

“In reference to the U.S. Attorney General’s order, there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official,” Bowser wrote.

Numerous experts, meanwhile, described the conflict over the city’s local police authority as a dangerous moment for U.S. democracy and a high-stakes moment for public safety.

“On a concern scale of zero to ten I’m at about an 11.5,” said Rosa Brooks, a former reserve police officer with the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, who now studies policing policy at Georgetown Law School.

“It’s quite scary, it’s unprecedented. The symbolic aspect of it, this is police state territory,” she added, noting that Trump has suggested similar federal authority over law enforcement could be extended to other U.S. cities.

According to Brooks, confusion over who is in charge of MPD officers also poses immediate public safety concerns for police and the public.

“I think it’s actually quite dangerous. Whenever you have lots of armed people and lack of clarity over who’s in charge of what, you have a really risky situation,” Brooks said.

NPR reached out to officials with the District of Columbia Police Union for their view on how the conflict is affecting officers. They haven’t yet responded.

This legal fight over operational control comes after Trump said on Monday that local police under federal control would act much more aggressively and would have permission from administration officials to do “whatever the hell they want.”