Fact check: Violent crime in DC has fallen in 2024 and 2025 after a 2023 spike

President Donald Trump, justifying his temporary federal takeover of policing in the nation’s capital, claimed at a press conference Monday that the violent crime situation in Washington, DC, “is getting worse, not getting better.” He asserted in an executive order that “crime is out of control in the District of Columbia” and that there is “rising violence in the capital.”

But violence in the capital is actually falling. After a spike in 2023, violent crime declined in 2024 and has declined again so far in 2025.