The federal takeover of D.C. Police was based on claims that crime is getting worse. But, journalists who’ve long covered the region remember a much more dangerous time.
President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the D.C. police department and deployment of the National Guard was based on claims that crime is “getting worse, not getting better.”
But, journalists who have long been covering the region remember a much more dangerous time in the District.
The crack cocaine epidemic swept across D.C. in the late 1980s and early 1990s, causing homicide rates to spike and a nickname to stick: “murder capital of the U.S.” In 1985, there were 157 homicides in D.C. By 1991, that number more than tripled, with 509 homicides plaguing the city, according to a study conducted by the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Three journalists who were in D.C. during the late 1980s to early 1990s reflected on what crime was like in the city, and how things compare today.
‘My neighbors robbed us during a party’
WTOP’s Shawn Anderson and Anne Kramer talked to WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller about his unique perspective on crime in D.C. over 30 years ago.
WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller moved to D.C. in the late 1980s to go to graduate school, right at the height of the drug crisis. He reflected on the crime he personally experienced when he first got to the city.
“Not long after I moved into a rental home in Northeast, my neighbors robbed us during a party. Another day, I went to get a newspaper, a guy ran by me with a fistful of cash he had taken from a convenience store. I was so sick of the crime around me, I chased him a few blocks and he punched me in the face before the police pulled up and arrested him. So it was really bad,” Miller said.
He pointed out that while crime is nowhere near as bad as it was in the late ’80s and early ’90s, D.C. is still a major metropolitan city that experiences crime.
“In the Navy Yard area and during the height of the pandemic, I was the victim of an attempted carjacking on Capitol Hill involving two guys and another guy in a truck. Fortunately, they were unarmed and I was able to fight them off, and they didn’t get my car,” Miller said.
He added that many D.C. residents citywide have been saying for years that something needs to be done about crime.
But will the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime make an actual difference? “We’ll have to see,” Miller said.
‘Here we go again’
WTOP’s Del Walters has covered D.C. for four decades and shared what it was like to work in the District back then.
In the late 1980s, D.C. police announced Operation Clean Sweep, a program intended to crackdown on dealing drugs in the streets of the District. According to the Washington Post, officers would go undercover and act as buyers and sellers and set up command stations in crime-riddled areas of the city.
During Operation Clean Sweep, WTOP’s Del Walters, who has covered D.C. for more than four decades, decided to live in one of the city’s most notorious drug corridors with a photographer for a series called, “Five Days from the Front.”
Walters and the photographer would watch as the streets turned violent overnight, and then in the mornings. Walters said: “Business owners like Virginia Ali of Ben’s Chili Bowl would come out, sweep up the crack needles and condoms in the alley outside her now famous eatery, and open for business.”
“That’s when I learned that crime, like everything else, has a pattern and a time frame that doesn’t seem to suite most cities and most police budgets. Most cops don’t like to work the overnight shift. Most crooks do,” Walters said.
When Walters’ heard about the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime, he thought, “Here we go again.”
And when he sees the National Guard’s tanks on the streets of D.C.: “Are they there for the tourists? Or are they there for people like Virginia Ali, who now call D.C. home and have for decades, and have seen the worst of times and the best of times, while the people committing the crimes who are in all likelihood at home, asleep?” Walters asked.
‘It’s nothing like it was back then’
Former D.C. Bureau Chief for 7News Sam Ford shared his thoughts on crime in D.C. now versus then.
“The crack epidemic at that time was the driver of homicides,” Sam Ford, the former D.C. bureau chief for 7News, told WTOP.
Ford worked for 7News for over 30 years, and started working in 1987, right in the middle of crack epidemic.
He said it was a different era back then, with people fighting over money and territory.
Crime started going down in the late 1990s, which is when D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey was appointed.
Despite crime in D.C. being at an all-time low, Ford acknowledged there are still things the public should be worried about: “Now are we, you know, just the safest place on Earth? Of course not. This is a big city. This is D.C., you know, and on average here, you still have more than 150 homicides and — but, at the same time, when you’re comparing it to then, it’s nothing like that.”
Ford lived on Capitol Hill at the beginning of his career. One night at home, while he was helping his then-9-year-old daughter with her homework, he heard a scream and a gunshot.
“I shoved my daughter off the bed, and I hit the floor on the other side. This is, right, you know, half a block off my house,” Ford said.
After poking around to figure out what happened, Ford uncovered that because there were so many robberies in the area, police officers would intentionally place people in the streets to try and catch the criminals. That night, a police officer apparently shot at a robber.
“It’s a whole different picture today. I mean, it’s nothing like it was back then,” Ford said.
Crime statistics today
According to the D.C. police department, as of Aug. 15, 2025, the city’s overall violent crime rates year-to-date are down 26%. Since last year, homicides are down 11%, sex abuse is down 50%, robbery is down 29%, and assault with a dangerous weapon is down 20%.
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