OAN Staff Blake Wolf
3:24 PM – Monday, August 11, 2025
Washington, D.C. Police Union Chair Gregg Pemberton commended President Donald Trump’s decision to temporarily assume oversight of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), citing the city’s rampant and “out-of-control” crime as necessitating federal intervention.
Pemberton is “a Detective Grade 1” with the Metropolitan Police Department and he serves as the Chairman of the D.C. Police Union.
“We stand with the President in recognizing that Washington, D.C., cannot continue on this trajectory,” Pemberton stated. “Crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits.”
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“The federal intervention is a critical stopgap, but the MPD needs proper staffing and support to thrive,” he continued.
In an interview with Fox News, Pemberton explained that the degradation of the district of Columbia (D.C.) was most notable in the aftermath of the George Floyd (BLM) movement in 2020, as the D.C. city council “passed an enormous amount of legislation that handcuffed police officers,” exposing “them to administrative, civil, and even criminal liability, even when they do their jobs properly.”
Pemberton also went on to reveal that the D.C. police force is extremely understaffed as well, contributing to the rampant amount of unchecked crime.
“Now, 5 years later, our authorized sworn strength is 4,000 sworn police officers, we currently have 3,180, so we have more than 800 vacancies for the position of police officer, and the way the department makes up for that gap is through two million hours of mandatory overtime every year,” he stated.
“So the fact that we need help from federal law enforcement and maybe even the National Guard shouldn’t come as a surprise, and we agree with that. I think one of the issues here though, is that we all know that’s going to be temporary. So in order to fix this problem and make sure that it doesn’t ebb and flow and that the feds come in and we lower crime and then they leave and we’re left holding the bag — it’s very important that people know there is underlying legislation that needs to be corrected so that we can actually properly staff this police department in order to properly police the city,” Pemberton added.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has since contested President Trump’s federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department, challenging the “legitimacy” of his authority under the Home Rule Act to transfer control of the MPD to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“The Home Rule Charter requires the mayor to provide the services of MPD during special conditions of an emergency. And we will follow the law. Though there’s a question about the subjectivity of that declaration,” Bowser stated.
Trump announced that he was utilizing Section 740 of the D.C.’s Home Rule Act to federalize the MPD, which grants the president the authority to assume control of the MPD under specific emergency conditions for 30 days.
Democrat Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb has also come out guns-a-blazing against the GOP president, arguing that the Trump administration’s actions are “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful. There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia.”
Other Democrats, including local councilmembers in the D.C. area, similarly condemned the move as well.
“The president taking over local control of MPD & putting the US military onto the streets of D.C. under the guise of public safety is wrong. It’s an extreme, outrageous, and dangerous move for our city and the safety of all our residents,” stated D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen (D-D.C.).
“National Guard soldiers are trained for warfare & natural disasters, not for community policing. Every American should be deeply concerned with what they’re witnessing today. It might make sense if he’s trying to create compelling TV and distract folks from the real scandals he’s facing, but it doesn’t make our city safer & it’s a dangerous abuse of power and authority,” Allen added.
Nonetheless, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Ferris Pirro, shot back at reporters attempting to diminish President Trump’s initiative, asserting that despite a marginal decline in crime rates compared to the previous year, such levels remain unacceptably high—particularly in the nation’s Capitol. She emphasized that Washington, D.C. has the fourth highest rate of homicide in the country.
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