Violent Crime, Homelessness, and Fentanyl in DC: What to Know

The district’s police union chief, who alleges some violent crimes are being downgraded, said he supports Trump’s takeover.

Federal and local law enforcement officers investigate a suspect’s vehicle on South Capitol Street in Washington on Aug. 11, 2025.Alex Wong/Getty Images

WASHINGTON—After multiple high-profile violent crimes in Washington, President Donald Trump has taken over D.C.’s police department and activated its National Guard.

At an Aug. 11 press conference, Trump said he would “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor,” declaring a public safety emergency.

The president’s comments and actions have sparked debate about the scope of violent crime and homelessness in the district, which included an assault on a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer that left him bloodied on the street.

Meanwhile, falling violent crime numbers in a district known for its high homicide rate come alongside skepticism from the police union. They allege that numbers are being manipulated to make the picture look rosier.

Here is where things stand.

Trump vs. Bowser

On Truth Social on Aug. 10, Trump wrote that the local homeless must “move out, immediately,” adding, “We will give you places to stay, but far from the capital.”

“The criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong,” he added.

Under the D.C. Home Rule Act, the president can maintain emergency control of the Metropolitan Police Department for 30 days. Congress would need to greenlight a longer takeover.

In her own press conference, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said a post-COVID spike in violent crime was addressed through new laws and “tactics that got violent offenders off our streets and gave our police officers more tools.”

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks at a media briefing at Reagan National Airport in Arlington Va., on Jan. 30, 2025. Ting Shen/AFP via Getty Images

She said she had not gotten additional details from the administration about its plans for the district’s homeless population.

Victims in Government Circles

During his press conference, Trump referenced recent violent crimes in D.C. that spilled over into the world of government.

Earlier this month, 19-year-old Edward Coristine, a central figure in DOGE, was assaulted by 10 juveniles during an attempted carjacking at 3 a.m. near DuPont Circle.

According to a police report obtained by The Epoch Times, Coristine said he pushed his significant other inside the vehicle “and turned to deal with the suspects.”

The juveniles fled when police stopped to intervene. Two suspects were apprehended.

On X, fellow DOGE staffer Marko Elez lauded Coristine, saying he “protected a young woman from an attempted carjacking.”

Trump at the press conference said he “can’t believe that he’s alive.”

The president also referenced the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Eric Tarpinian-Jachym on June 30. Tarpinian-Jachym, a University of Massachusetts student, was an intern for Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.).

D.C. police believe he was an innocent bystander in the shooting, which injured two others.

They and the FBI have offered a combined $40,000 reward for information on the homicide.

Violent Crime Numbers

As of Aug. 12, the Metropolitan Police documented 100 homicides in D.C. in 2025. That is down from 112 over the same period last year.

In 2024, there were more than 180 homicides in the district, giving it a homicide rate of 27.3 per 100,000 residents. That puts it fourth in the nation among large cities assessed by the Rochester Institute of Technology. Only St. Louis, New Orleans, and Detroit were deadlier.

Reported cases of sexual assault, robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon declined in 2025, according to the police statistics.

A police dashboard on carjackings shows an increase after 2018 and a massive surge in 2023. June of that year saw 140 carjackings.

A member of the National Guard arrives at the Guard’s headquarters at the D.C. Armory in Washington on Aug. 12, 2025. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Carjackings have generally declined since then, hitting 2018-level numbers this April, with 17 carjackings, and this July, with 16 carjackings.

May and June of 2025 saw another surge, with 50 carjackings reported in May and 36 in June.

Numbers Allegedly Manipulated

In January 2025, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves touted the latest violent crime data, saying the numbers from 2024 marked a 30-year low.

His office credited the drop to police targeting drug trafficking operations as well as charging in gun-related cases.

The D.C. Police Union has questioned some of the district’s crime numbers—and a police commander is under scrutiny.

NBC Washington reported that former 3rd district commander Michael Pulliam was placed on paid administrative leave amid an investigation into whether he altered crime statistics.

In an email to The Epoch Times, Sean Hickman of the Metropolitan Police confirmed that Pulliam is on leave. He said the department “cannot comment on active internal investigations and personnel matters.”

Greggory Pemberton, who chairs the local Fraternal Order of Police, said commanders have been instructing officers to downgrade offenses when taking reports from crime victims.

“So, instead of taking a report for a shooting or a stabbing or a carjacking, they will order that officer to take a report for a theft or an injured person to the hospital or a felony assault, which is not the same type of classification,” Pemberton said.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said that “any irregularity in crime data brought to my attention will be addressed immediately.”

“I do not condone any official reclassifying criminal offenses outside the guidelines set in MPD policy. Any allegation of this behavior will be dealt with through our internal processes, which will ensure those members are held accountable,” she added.

Police Union Leader Endorses Trump’s Takeover

Pemberton voiced support for Trump’s moves.

“We couldn’t agree more with the president that crime in the District of Columbia is out of control and something needs to be done with it,” he said on Fox News.

In 2020, D.C. passed a sweeping police accountability law. Among other things, the law changed officer discipline standards and created a police reform commission.

Pemberton said the legal climate since 2020 has “handcuffed police officers.”

The number of sworn police officers in D.C. has declined from 3,799 in 2020 to 3,181 as of early August 2025.

“We welcome any help we can get,” Pemberton said on News Nation.

The Homeless

At the takeover press conference, Trump pledged he and his team would soon “be removing homeless encampments from all over our parks.”

D.C.’s homeless have also frequented Washington Union Station, a hub for the rapid transit Metrorail, Amtrak, commuter trains, and various buses.

Passengers wait to board an Amtrak train at Union Station on the day before the Thanksgiving holiday, in Washington, on Nov. 21, 2018. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Union Station is less than half a mile from Senate office buildings and the U.S. Capitol campus.

A 2025 report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments documents the scale of homelessness in the district and the wider region.

In January, a point-in-time count revealed that 5,138 people in Washington were literally homeless—some in shelters, others unsheltered.

That is down from 5,616 in 2024 but up from 4,922 in 2023.

Between 2021 and 2025, homelessness in the district increased by 1 percent. The region saw a much larger increase of 19 percent, driven in large part by a surge in Montgomery County as well as increases in Loudoun County, Prince William County, and other counties outside D.C.

Opioids, Fentanyl, and Overdoses

The nationwide opioid epidemic has ravaged D.C.—and fentanyl has been a massive contributor.

In Monday’s press conference, Trump warned of “drugged-out maniacs” in the district, while Attorney General Pam Bondi referenced a fentanyl overdose in a tourist-heavy area.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in D.C. found that opioid-related deaths have surged over the past decade, rising from 83 in 2014 to 523 in 2023.

Fentanyl overtook heroin as the leading contributor to those deaths in 2017.

A homeless man holds a blowtorch he used to heat fentanyl in Garden Grove, Calif., on April 3, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

By 2023, fentanyl and fentanyl analogs were involved in 98 percent of opioid overdose deaths, up from 62 percent in 2016.

As of 2022, D.C. faced an age-adjusted death rate for all overdoses of 64.3 per 100,000 people, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That topped every state in the nation except nearby West Virginia.