Emergency order on D.C. police ends as Congress weighs autonomy

President Donald Trump’s 30 day emergency order that placed the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department under federal control expired late Wednesday, returning local police authority to Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. government even as thousands of National Guard members and other federal agents remain in the city and a fight over the capital’s autonomy moves to Congress. Bowser’s office said the order ended at midnight and the MPD will no longer cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the absence of the emergency, though federal deployments tied to the surge are continuing and their end date is unclear.

The federal takeover, invoked under a provision of the Home Rule Act, had put roughly 2,000 Guard members from D.C. and seven states alongside federal law enforcement in an effort the Trump administration described as a crimefighting initiative. The White House and local police released figures showing crime fell during the surge; the administration hailed steep improvements. President Trump wrote on his social media platform that the city had become “virtually NO CRIME” and threatened to declare a national emergency and federalize the capital...