Donald Trump’s deployment of thousands of troops into Washington, D.C., failed to reduce violent crime, a study has found.
Research from the nonpartisan D.C.-based think tank Niskanen Center found that while the president’s addition of around 2,000 troops to patrol the capital in August led to a reduction in “opportunistic property crime,” it had no measurable effect on violent crime.
Instead, the $185 million deployment of National Guard troops was more of a “blunt and expensive” stunt, and their presence only resulted in a 24 percent reduction in crimes such as theft and vandalism, the study found.
“What the Guard brought was a massive, sudden shock from the visible presence of uniformed military personnel on the streets of Washington almost overnight,” the research team wrote.
“For crimes driven by opportunistic calculation, that visibility appears to have mattered. For violent crime, which is less deterrable by patrol presence alone, it did not.”
Trump deployed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., after claiming that the “magnitude of the violent crime crisis” in the capital placed it among the “most violent jurisdictions” in the U.S.
During his State of the Union address in February, Trump suggested his crime crackdown was a huge success, insisting that “we have almost no crime anymore in Washington, D.C.” as a result.
The Niskanen Center study said the deployment of troops—who were at times seen on duty picking up litter in the capital—was responsible for the reduction in certain offenses, but not in violent crimes.
The National Guard was deployed primarily in “high-visibility public spaces” and popular tourist destinations, where opportunistic property crime tends to occur.
However, the occurrence of violent crimes such as murder, assault, and rape is “more deeply rooted in interpersonal dynamics, social network conflicts, and the structural conditions of high-poverty neighborhoods,” according to the study.
“A uniformed presence in tourist corridors and transit hubs is unlikely to interrupt a dispute between individuals with preexisting ties on their own turf. The Guard’s footprint was simply misaligned with the geography of violence.”
The study also notes that the National Guard is “not a substitute” for the Metropolitan Police Department, given that troops have no power to arrest people.
“The National Guard deployment appears to have deterred opportunistic property offending, exactly the category of crime most sensitive to visible, high-presence enforcement on the street. Violent crime was unmoved,” the team added.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
