District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that President Trump's deployment of the National Guard has not contributed to weeks of lower crime rates.
Instead, during her Thursday appearance before the committee, she lauded an increase in the presence of law enforcement backing the local Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
"What has worked is not the National Guard in helping enhance MPD services. What has worked is more DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration], more FBI," she told Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a retired Army National Guard brigadier general.
He criticized Bowser for not calling in the National Guard sooner, alleging crime rates were soaring despite city statistics documenting violent crime remains at the lowest numbers in 30 years.
"We don't regard the guard as a law enforcement agent. It's not a law enforcement [agency] so we wouldn't call on them," the three-term mayor told lawmakers.
In early August, the president deployed hundreds of National Guard soldiers to the District in addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, narcotics officers and FBI officials to sweep the nation's capital.
Two days after Trump announced that he would send soldiers to D.C., there was a homicide. However, the 13 days following were homicide-free.
Since then, four additional killings have been recorded by local police, bringing the city to 108 homicides for the year.
Bowser said Thursday she is looking to continue charting a positive course amid federal intervention.
"Any crime is too much crime. But we're trending in the right direction," she told the committee.
Bowser's remarks were subtle compared with those of her Democratic colleagues, who decried the president's policing tactics in the nation's capital.
"Sending masked agents in unmarked cars to pick people up off the streets; flooding our neighborhoods with armed national guardsmen untrained in local policing; attempting a federal takeover of our police force -- none of these are durable, lasting solutions for driving down crime," D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said at the Thursday hearing. He added that Trump's policies will "destroy critical trust between local communities and police, which is essential to effective, efficient policing and prosecution."
Republicans have proposed a series of bills seeking to overtake the District's autonomy, ordering criminal legislation and other measures to be overseen by federal lawmakers.
On Wednesday in the full House, a bill striking down D.C.'s Judicial Nomination Commission passed in addition to a separate measure approving high-speed police chases passed with opposition from local leaders.