POLICINGWhat Would a More Effective Policing Strategy Look Like in D.C.?
We spoke with crime prevention expert David Kennedy about the Trump administration’s takeover of law enforcement in the nation’s capital, and the tactics that might prove more effective.
This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.
On August 11, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and took the unprecedented step of putting the Metropolitan Police Department, the capital’s police force, under the control of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. In the week since, Bondi has ordered federal law enforcement agents onto city streets and attempted to usurp the power of MPD’s police chief.
To justify his decision, Trump claimed that violent crime in Washington was spiraling out of control. It’s true that the nation’s capital suffers from persistent and deadly gun violence, but data shows that violent crime in the district is plummeting, homicides are falling, and gun violence is declining.
Why and how violence falls is complicated, and it’s the result of a number of factors. Some are interventions that can be steered by policy, and others, like many socioeconomic factors, are outside anyone’s direct control. That raises the question: Will deploying the National Guard and federalizing law enforcement help bring violence down more? And if not, what would a better strategy look like?
To get a clearer understanding of what could be done to reduce violence further in Washington, and other major cities the president singled out for possible future action, I spoke with with one of the country’s leading crime prevention experts: David Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and founder of the National Network for Safe Communities.
In the 1990s, Kennedy pioneered a groundbreaking violence prevention effort that paired targeted policing with community-led interventions and social services. In Boston, a pilot program known as Operation Ceasefire contributed to a reduction in homicides so substantial that it was dubbed the “Boston Miracle.” Its success gave rise to a strategy known as focused deterrence that’s been adopted by dozens of cities around the country. Research shows it’s one of the most effective violence prevention strategies, when done carefully.
Below, Kennedy and I discuss Trump’s strategy on the merits and what a better approach might look like. Our interview has been edited for length and clarity.
