Lawfare Daily: The National Guard in Washington, D.C.
Summary
Brad Heath analyzes 17,000 DC court records to assess the National Guard’s crime-fighting impact, finding they appear in only 1.3% of cases, mostly for petty offenses. He highlights significant transparency gaps regarding deployment orders and notes that troops are concentrated in safer, wealthier areas rather than high-crime neighborhoods. Despite these limitations, overall DC crime rates have declined, though it remains difficult to attribute this reduction specifically to the Guard’s presence amidst other federal interventions.
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