Mayor Suggests DC Will Cooperate, but Police Chief Is the Boss

Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday she plans to discuss the terms of President Trump's takeover of the police force in Washington, DC. But she clarified the chain of command first in a news conference, the Washington Post reports. "Chief Pamela Smith is the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department," Bowser said, "and its 3,100 members work under her direction." She also said the District has asked for all federal officers deployed to Washington wear identifying clothing—an issue in the Trump administration's immigration raids.

Other officials objected to Trump's action. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, both Democrats, said they'll reintroduce legislation in Congress to give the District authority over its National Guard and police. In a statement, Norton said the takeover "is an historic assault on DC home rule, is a counterproductive, escalatory seizure of DC's resources to use for purposes not supported by DC residents, and is more evidence of the urgent need to pass my DC statehood bill." The DC Council denounced the move as a "manufactured intrusion on local authority" and pointed out that "the National Guard has no public safety training or knowledge of local laws," per the Hill.

Bowser said she talked to US Marshals Service after Trump's announcement about how the federal deployment would work. Police Chief Pamela Smith said at the press conference that the extra help could be a benefit in executing warrants and beefing up patrols in areas with high rates of violent crime, per the Post. "Our relationship with our federal partners is not new," she said. "We do this on a daily basis."