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As President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement surge in D.C. continues, new numbers show more than 1,000 arrests have been made in the first two weeks.
More than 300 people have been arrested on immigration-related charges.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who is D.C.’s top prosecutor, is the person responsible for prosecuting most criminal cases in the District. She joined WTOP’s Michelle Basch and Mark Lewis on Tuesday morning.
Listen to the full interview below.
Pirro said the surge is helping to combat crime and criticized city lawmakers for adopting policies that don’t result in accountability.
She told WTOP there were 87 arrests on Monday as part of the boost in federal resources deployed across the city. There have been about 115 guns taken off the street, Pirro said, calling the operation “tremendously successful.”
Pirro’s comments come as Trump’s law enforcement surge is in its third week. National Guard troops have been deployed to D.C. streets, some now carrying weapons, and federal agencies such as the Secret Service, FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are working alongside D.C. police. Homeless encampments across the city have also been cleared as part of the surge.
“We’re going to make the city safe again,” Pirro said. “People are going out to restaurants. People are going out for walks. We’re tired of hearing about an intern, my office is handling this, being shot going out at 10:30 at night, shot and killed. Another ex-DOGE worker getting the hell beaten out of him, a broken nose, a fractured skull. This is crazy town.”
City leaders, though, have maintained that crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low. WTOP has contacted Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office for comment.
Meanwhile, Phil Mendelson, who chairs the D.C. Council, said while there is crime in the city, statistics are down. Homicides, Mendelson said, are “unquestionably down” and “we also have a sense that in terms of gunshot wounds that are reported to hospitals, that those numbers are down.”
“There is crime in the city, no denying that, but the level of crime and violent crime has dropped, and what I hear is residents resent this narrative and feel under siege, and nobody feels good about this sense of a militarization of our communities,” Mendelson said.
President Trump’s law enforcement surge is scheduled to end 30 days after it started. Extending it would require Congressional approval. As to whether Trump will take that step, Pirro said it’s “his call, ultimately.”
Mendelson said city leaders “don’t want that emergency to continue. And I’m concerned about it. What’s really frustrating is that it’s a false narrative, and then we’re accused of being false in saying it’s a false narrative.”
Pirro, whose office prosecutes most of the city’s criminal cases, said her office is getting help from military lawyers because the office is short 90 prosecutors and 60 investigators and paralegals. D.C. Superior Court, Pirro said, is short over a dozen judges.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order that threatened to withhold federal money from jurisdictions that offer cashless bail.
Asked whether there’s a large number of people who are released before trial and then get arrested again, Pirro said, “Unfortunately, I cannot give you those numbers. I’m kind of inundated in terms of what I’m doing. But what I can tell you is this — when someone is arrested and they are released and they are rearrested and reoffend, the message to the criminal is there is no accountability.”
Pirro said she wants her office to be able to prosecute younger kids as adults, because “these kids are being recruited now to commit crimes, because they go to family court if they’re even arrested.”
Pirro told NBC Washington she wants to be able to charge kids as young as 12 as adults.
Mendelson said D.C. has had cashless bail for over 30 years and there haven’t been complaints.
“We’re trying to get the data, but my understanding is that the number of individuals who are released pre-trial, who are arrested for reoffending, especially for violent offenses, is very low, like single digits, if not even lower than that,” Mendelson said.
As for offering cashless bail, Mendelson said “the ability to pay money, to pay bail, is not a determinant of whether somebody is a danger to the community or risk of flight.”
Pointing to laws such as the Youth Rehabilitation Act and Incarceration Reduction Act, Pirro said the D.C. Council is complicit “in allowing criminals, young criminals, to reoffend.”
Mendelson disputed that, explaining both laws pertain to people after they’re already “prosecuted and found guilty and locked up for a period of time.”
“It’s convenient to beat up on the council, but we’re not the ones who are in the front lines with making arrests, deciding whether to prosecute and deciding whether to convict,” Mendelson said.
Council member Christina Henderson said it’s unclear what metrics will be used to determine whether the law enforcement surge is effective. Similarly, she said the council hasn’t received information about whether the people who are arrested are getting charged.
“It’s really breaking down community trust that, in some areas, has taken many, many years in order to build up for folks,” Henderson told WTOP. “While I understand that there are definitely, probably D.C. residents who feel like this is welcomed, I would say for the vast majority of folks, they are feeling much more anxious for stepping outside of their homes, because they don’t necessarily know what’s going to happen in terms of federal enforcement.”
Bowser and council members are planning to meet later this week to discuss what each branch of government is doing in response to the law enforcement surge, Mendelson said.
The “so-called precipitous increase in crime is a manufactured narrative, and it’s unfortunate,” Mendelson said.
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