President Donald Trump, justifying his temporary federal takeover of policing in the nation’s capital, claimed at a press conference Monday that the violent crime situation in Washington, DC, “is getting worse, not getting better.” He asserted in an executive order that “crime is out of control in the District of Columbia” and that there is “rising violence in the capital.”

But violence in the capital is actually falling. After a spike in 2023, violent crime declined in 2024 and has declined again so far in 2025.

Washington has been a relatively high-crime place for decades , with a homicide rate that has persistently been among the country’s worst for big cities – though the district has gotten markedly safer since the crack cocaine crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s . And Washin

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