Is the crime in Washington really out of control as Trump claims?

President Donald Trump said he would deploy hundreds of national guard troops at Washington DC and would take control of his police service to fight crime.

During a press conference, he declared the “liberation day” for the city and undertook to “save the capital of our country from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and misery and worse”.

However, the mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, said that the city had “experienced a huge decrease in crime” and that it was “at a violent 30 -year calendar”.

BBC VERIFY examines what the figures show about violent crimes in the capital and how it compares to other cities in the United States.

Trump’s executive decree declaring “a criminal emergency in the Columbia district” mentions “the increase in violence in the capital”. During his press conference, he made repeated references to “out of control” crime.

But according to crime figures published by the metropolitan police of Washington DC (MPDC), violent crimes fell after having culminated in 2023 and 2024 reached their lowest level in 30 years.

They continue to fall, according to preliminary data for 2025.

The crime violent overall is down 26% this year compared to the same point in 2024, and the flight fell 28%, according to the MPDC.

Trump and the DC police union questioned the veracity of the crime of the city’s police service.

Violent crimes are reported differently by the MPDC and the FBI – another major source of statistics on American crime.

MPDC public data showed a decrease of 35% for 2024, while FBI data showed a 9% drop.

Thus, the figures agree that the crime falls in DC, but differs at the level of this drop.

The downward trend is “undoubtedly and important”, according to Adam Gelb, CEO of the Criminal Justice Council (CCJ), a legal reflection group.

“The figures change depending on the period and the types of crimes you are examining,” said Gelb.

“But overall, there has been an undoubted and significant drop in violence since the summer of 2023, when there have been peaks of homicide, attacks of firearms, theft and car.”

Trump also said that “the murders in 2023 have reached the highest rate probably” at Washington DC – adding that the figures “go up 25 years”.

When we asked the White House the source of the figures, they said it was “figures provided by the FBI”.

The homicide rate increased in 2023 to around 40 per 100,000 residents – the highest rate in 20 years, according to FBI data.

However, it was not the highest ever recorded – it was significantly higher in the 1990s and the early 2000s.

The homicide rate dropped in 2024 and this year, it is down 12% on the same point last year, according to the MPDC.

Studies have suggested that the capital’s homicide rate is above average compared to other major American cities.

As of August 11, there have been 99 homicides this year at Washington DC – including a 21 -year -old trainee shot in Crossfire, a case that Trump faced during his press conference.

The president also mentioned the case of a former 19 -year -old employee of the Government Ministry (DOGE) who was injured in an alleged attempted car diversion in the capital in early August.

Trump said that “the number of carjacking has more than tripled” over the past five years.

So far this year, the MPDC has recorded 189 car diversion offenses, against 300 during the same period last year.

According to the CCJ, carjacking increased considerably from 2020 and increased to a monthly peak of 140 incidents reported in June 2023.

Since July 2025, a curfew on the city level has been in force for people under the age of 5:00 p.m. to 6 a.m.

It has been introduced to fight juvenile crimes – including diversion of car – which often increases during the summer months.

“The level of violence in the district remains mainly higher than the average of three dozen cities in our sample,” said Mr. Gelb du CCJ.

“Although its downward trend is in accordance with what we see in other major cities across the country,” he added.

The CCJ examines crime rates in 30 major American cities.

His analysis suggests that the homicide rate in DC fell 19% in the first half of this year (January-June 2025), compared to the same period last year.

This is a slightly greater drop than the average drop of 17% in the cities of the CCJ study sample.

However, if you take the first six months of 2025 and compare it to the same period in 2019 – before the COVVI -19 pandemic – this only shows a 3% drop in homicides.

In the 30 cities of the study, this decrease was 14% on the same period.