"Do you think this is going to end after 30 days?" Bowser: "What we want is local control of our public safety ecosystem, and that includes deployment of officers. We want federal officers that work in coordination with us." She refused to say whether surge would end by deadline
"Why would the admin exerting greater control over Union Station a good thing?" Bowser: "They own Union Station" She says investments are not in any current budgets, and Union Station has suffered from not getting money for renovations.
"Let me put it this way, if there were 500 additional MPD officers, that same activity —arrest and gun recovery—would have likely been made."
Asked whether federal presence could go on for a full year, Bowser said she has no idea what projects Trump could undertake or what timeline they'd be under
Asked about the "federal takeover," Bowser interrupts and clarifies "federal surge"
MPD Police Chief doesn't directly address a question about feds being "too aggressive." She says there are concerns anytime there's an "influx of anything" and says it's important to have MPD officers aligned with fed partners
On whether Bowser was "pro surge" "This is pretty pro we have seen reductions in crime"
Asked about Trump's claims that Bowser needed to get her act together, she wouldn't detail her conversations with Trump and pivots to the "benefits of federal law enforcement"
Bowser said she is concerned about masks "While I'm not going to give you like a rundown of every word that was said in the meeting, you can be assured that the things that we are very concerned about, we are working on a resolution for."
In what capacity is MPD assisting ICE? Police Chief: "based on the President's executive order, we are supporting the ask of the Metropolitan Police Department to support our federal partners in this effort"
On concerns that residents don't want to call MPD because of fears that ICE will follow, Smith says she understands concerns but no concrete answer for what is to be done