A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A total of six states have now promised to send their National Guard troops to Washington, D.C.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That will add more than 1,100 new soldiers to patrol the streets. The deployments follow President Trump's declaring what he called a, quote, "crime emergency" in the capital, unquote. All the states sending troops are led by Republicans, and that has some others expressing concern that the Guard is being politicized. In a few minutes, we'll speak to a former vice chief of the National Guard Bureau to get his take on whether this use of the Guard matches its expertise. But first...
MARTÍNEZ: NPR criminal justice reporter Meg Anderson joins us to explain. So as Michel just mentioned, the deployments are from states with Republican governors. I mean, that can't be a coincidence, is it?
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: Yeah, yeah, it's not. So far, the states are West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ohio and, as of yesterday, Tennessee. And, you know, in their statements, they echoed what Trump has said about crime in D.C. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said the troops were there to, quote, "support President Trump in his mission to restore law and order." And this really is falling mostly on partisan lines. Yesterday, Governor Laura Kelly of Kansas - she's the chair of the Democratic Governors' Association - put out a statement urging state leaders to, quote, "reject the temptation to use their soldiers to reinforce a dangerous, politically motivated agenda." And I should note Vermont Governor Phil Scott - he's a Republican. He said he's not going to send his troops. He didn't feel like it would be an acceptable and appropriate use of them.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, the thing I think a lot of people find puzzling is that many of these states are sending troops to D.C. have cities with crime rates that are higher than the capital. Don't they need them?
ANDERSON: Yeah, that's true. I looked at last year's murder rates, and in Jackson, Mississippi, the murder rate was more than four times the rate in D.C. In Memphis, it was nearly triple in New Orleans. It was nearly double. I spoke about this with Insha Rahman. She's with the advocacy group, the Vera Institute of Justice. They work to end mass incarceration.
INSHA RAHMAN: Trump enlisting Republican governors to send National Guard troops signals one thing very clearly - that this is about a political power grab and political theater, not about making cities safer.
ANDERSON: To be clear, D.C. still has had higher violent crime rates than many other major cities, but the numbers are falling.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, did you reach out to any of those governors who are deploying troops?
ANDERSON: I did. I only heard back from Ohio Governor Mike DeWine's Office. They said they've sent their troops outside the state before, including the inaugurations of both President Trump and former President Joe Biden, and also to protests in Minneapolis and natural disasters in Florida, North Carolina and Louisiana.
MARTÍNEZ: So how well suited is the National Guard at actually policing streets?
ANDERSON: So the National Guard usually is engaged in crowd control or helping in the aftermath of a natural disaster. They are not experienced in doing local police work. Policing expert Mark Kupanski noted that, too. He's with Arnold Ventures, a group that funds criminal justice initiatives, and he says he suspects using the Guard like this is not going to reduce crime.
MARC KRUPANSKI: This is kind of described as, like, the grenade effect, where they throw a considerable amount of resources at a problem over a short period of time. And that might help to drive that number down in the short term, but it doesn't actually help address the problem over the long run.
ANDERSON: And, you know, he stressed that there are long-term strategies that we do know work in lowering crime, things like community policing and boosting social services in neighborhoods, like adding employment opportunities and mental health resources.
MARTÍNEZ: That is NPR's Meg Anderson. Meg, thanks.
ANDERSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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