Mayor Signs Order Extending Cooperation Between DC and Federal Law Enforcement

WASHINGTON—Mayor Muriel Bowser signed an order on Sept. 3 extending cooperation between federal law enforcement and local police in the District of Columbia.

However, the mayor made clear that the order is not an extension of President Donald Trump’s  emergency declaration.

“In fact, it does the exact opposite,” she told reporters at a press conference. “What it does is lays out a framework for how we will exit the emergency. The emergency ends on Sept. 10. The only way it can be extended legally is by the Congress.”

Trump declared a crime emergency in Washington on Aug. 11 and initiated a 30-day federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). He also activated the D.C. National Guard to beef up law enforcement presence around the city.

The 1973 Home Rule Act gave the District of Columbia some authority to run its own affairs but still allowed Congress and the president a measure of control over the city. The president’s federal takeover of law enforcement in the city was the exercise of some of that federal power.

The mayor’s order establishes the creation of a Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center, which will allow local police forces to coordinate with federal agencies and request extra assistance after Trump’s emergency declaration ends on Sept. 10.

Trump’s Aug. 11 federal takeover established a task force with a similar name, and the mayor’s order says the new initiative will allow “post-emergency” planning and operations between local and federal law enforcement.

The mayor noted last week that crime in the nation’s capital had decreased during the takeover; carjackings had plummeted by 87 percent from this time last year.

“We know that when carjackings go down, when the use of guns goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer, ” Bowser told reporters at that time.

“So this surge has been important to us for that reason.”

Those comments were seen as praise for Trump’s crackdown and met with disapproval by some residents.

“Our mayor should be using every tool available to oppose this regime,” activist Keya Chatterjee told demonstrators at a rally protesting Trump’s administration on Aug. 29.

The protesters periodically mingled chants of “Recall! Bowser!” with anti-Trump slogans as they marched from Dupont to Logan Circle later that afternoon.

However, Bowser told reporters on Wednesday that she was “outraged over the intrusion” of the federal government.

She also said that while local residents were concerned that MDP officers were cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel, the Home Rule charter required them to assist the federal government when requested.

Trump praised the mayor for cooperating with the crime crackdown, which he viewed as successful.

“Mayor Bowser has been great,” the president said at the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon.