FBI moves to dispatch 120 agents to DC streets as Trump vows crackdown on crime

The FBI has begun dispatching about 120 of its agents in overnight shifts to help local law enforcement prevent carjackings and violent crime in Washi...

The FBI has begun dispatching about 120 of its agents in overnight shifts to help local law enforcement prevent carjackings and violent crime in Washington, according to two people familiar with the matter, as President Donald Trump threatens a federal takeover of the nation’s capital.

Trump, who plans a news conference at the White House on Monday on this topic, compared the forthcoming action against D.C. crime to his administration’s aggressive crackdown against illegal immigration at the southern border, saying on Sunday that he plans to “immediately clear out the city’s homeless population and take swift action against crime.”

“Be prepared! There will be no “MR. NICE GUY.” We want our Capital BACK,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social social media platform.

The deployment of FBI agents to deal with local crime puts agents from the bureau’s counterintelligence, public corruption and other divisions with minimal training in traffic stops out on the streets in potentially dangerous encounters, diverting them from their typical jobs at the bureau. And it comes as Trump is publicly portraying the city as rampant with violent crime - even as the mayor refutes that characterization, pointing to police data showing a drop in violent crime.

Last week, Trump ordered federal law enforcement agents from several agencies to be deployed on city streets and called for more juveniles to be charged in the adult justice system.