Two new polls find a broad partisan divide over whether the federal government should be involved in fighting crime in US cities, even as a large share of Americans say they see crime in urban areas as a major problem.

Just 36% of Americans support “federal officials bringing the Washington, DC local police under federal control citing a public safety emergency,” a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found, while 38% support “deploying National Guard troops from other states to Washington, DC, for law enforcement efforts.”

On both measures, Republicans are the strongest backers of the move with 76% of Republicans supporting National Guard deployments in DC and 71% supporting federal control of DC’s local police. Only 8% of Democrats favor either action.

Considering federal government

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