As National Guard troops patrol D.C. Metro stations and the U.S. transportation secretary takes aim at Metro, the head of the Metro Transit Police Department said he welcomes the troops – and pushed back against criticism.
Troops fanning out across many D.C. Metro stations have become part of the daily landscape since President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement surge began last month.
In an interview with News4, Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Anzallo spoke about working with National Guard troops.
“Now that they’re here, we’ve been working with them, and it’s just an added presence out there,” he said.
The troops’ visibility comes amid blistering criticism of Metro this week by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
“Washington D.C.’s transit crime crisis remains deadly. As Transportation secretary, I find the state of our capital metro system to be unacceptable,” he wrote in an op-ed in “The Hill.”
Anzallo pushed back against some of that criticism.
“Metro is very safe. If you look at the numbers, and we put them on our public-facing website, I think people can judge for themselves,” he said.
Anzallo said one crime is too many. One person has been killed in the Metro system so far this year, compared to zero for all of 2024. But overall, crime within Metro has been trending lower for some time, even before Trump’s surge.
Metro’s most recent statistics show that Part 1 crimes including robberies and assaults are down from 778 through July of last year to 480 through July of this year.
Arrests are up slightly during the same time frame, from 3,125 through July of last year to 3,159 through July of this year.
It’s unclear when the federal surge will end. But the Metro Transit Police chief said they’ll follow orders.
“Whatever the federal government does here in the District, we’ll cooperate with whatever D.C. is doing with the laws,” Anzallo said.
He said he would like to see more officers on buses. A recent proposal to put more special police officers on buses was voted down by the D.C. Council. The chief said he believes his department will continue to push for that change.
Metro encourages riders to report any suspicious activity to their officers or to the National Guard.
Sign up for our free deep-dive newsletter, The 4Front, to get standout News4 stories sent right to your inbox. Subscribe here.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/ASmNDie
0 Comments