Federal bid to run D.C. police triggers lawsuits and pushback

President Donald Trump’s bid to take over policing in Washington, D.C., and to extend a similar model to other major cities has prompted a surge of legal challenges, political bravado, and high-stakes questions about the balance of power between the federal government and local authorities. The initiative, which included deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to the capital and placing federal control over the district’s police force under an emergency chief, has been met with swift resistance from D.C.’s mayor and attorney general, who argue the move upends local governance and civil liberties while crime in several cities continues to fall.

In Washington, officials active in law enforcement and the courts pushed back against the federal maneuver. The administration deployed 800 National Guard troops for a month to counter what it labeled as out-of-control crime and proclaimed the creation of a federal emergency police leadership. At the same time, the Justice Department indicated it would assume guiding authority over the Metropolitan Police Department only as a temporary measure, leaving local leadership in place while directing certain enforcement practices. A federal...