Soldiers with the Alabama National Guard patrol around the Gallery Place-Chinatown area in Washington in support of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful mission on Feb. 3, 2026. About 2,500 service members from D.C. and nine states were operating in the city as of early January. (Sherald McAulay/U.S. Army National Guard)
WASHINGTON — National Guard members deployed to Washington, D.C., have broken up fights, administered opioid overdose medication and helped deliver a baby but have not had a measurable impact on crime reduction, according to a report released Thursday by Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
The report, from Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan and Andy Kim of New Jersey, estimated that the deployment, characterized by a top National Guard commander as a crime-fighting mission aimed at driving crime and overdoses “toward zero,” has cost more than $330 million.
“Protecting public safety is essential, but this deployment has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars without making our nation’s capital any safer,” said Peters, the committee’s top Democrat, in a statement.
About 2,500 service members from D.C. and nine states were operating in the city as of early January, at a cost of $1.65 million per day, according to the report. They are expected to remain through the end of the year under orders from President Donald Trump to address an “epidemic of crime.”
Months into the mission, however, the National Guard “cannot point to tangible crime reduction successes specifically tied to their efforts,” the report states.
Statistics show that violent crime was already decreasing when the National Guard was mobilized in August, and the Guard has been unable to demonstrate whether the ongoing decline is due to their deployment or a natural result of continuing trends, according to the report.
A spokesperson for Joint Task Force-District of Columbia said in a statement Thursday that National Guard members are providing “critical assistance to the Metropolitan Police Department to help ensure the safety of residents, commuters and visitors throughout the District.”
The D.C. National Guard in meetings with committee staff said the troops’ presence has deterred petty crime and scuffles, particularly between teenagers, and helps control crowds during the police department’s law enforcement efforts.
Service members began carrying naxalone, an over-the-counter nasal spray used to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses, several months ago and have used it on 44 occasions. They also helped deliver a baby and prevented a stabbing, National Guard leadership told staff.
Many Guard members have also been engaged in beautification work. As of September 2025, they had packed 6,030 pounds of food, painted 270 feet of fence and pruned 65 trees, according to the report. The work has been halted for the winter and will resume in the spring.
The National Guard is largely concentrated in highly trafficked areas in central Washington. Leadership told staff that they are not focused on combating crime in neighborhoods with high levels of violence because the Guard is “a lousy tool for fixing gun crime.”
Two National Guard members, Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, were shot near the White House in November while deployed. Beckstrom died from her wounds.
Committee staff said they had to make several oversight visits to the D.C. National Guard headquarters over the fall and winter after the Defense Department failed to respond to questions about the National Guard’s presence in the city.
Their findings show the D.C. National Guard is on track to spend more than $602 million per year on the deployment — a sum slightly larger than the operating 2026 budget for the Metropolitan Police Department, which employs about 4,900 officers.
More than three dozen officers are also members of the D.C. National Guard and have at various times been forced to go on leave to deploy with the Guard, reducing police manpower, according to the report.
The indefinite deployment of the Guard has also raised questions about the ability of Guard units to conduct regular training and prepare for other missions. National Guard leaders in conversations with committee staff said they had significant concerns that the mobilization has and will continue to decrease readiness, according to the report.
The status of the deployment remains in legal limbo. A federal judge ordered an end to troops’ presence in Washington in November but an appeals court overturned the ruling a month later, saying the president “possesses a unique power” to mobilize the Guard in a federal district.
