Indiana sending 300 National Guard troops to D.C.

Nearly 300 Indiana National Guard members will arrive in the District next month as the Trump administration’s crime-fighting mission presses ahead.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun authorized the deployment of troops to replace a batch of guardsmen planning to leave town in the coming weeks. The D.C. National Guard put in the request for support before some of the current troops’ departure.

“Hoosiers are proud of our Guardsmen, who are well-trained and fully prepared for this mission,” Mr. Braun, a Republican, said in a statement. “We are grateful for their service and support in our nation’s capital.”

Soldiers coming from Indiana will be from the Guard’s field artillery and engineer battalions, which are based in Bloomington and Gary.

The troops will train in Indiana before heading to the District in early December.

The D.C. National Guard will bring them up to speed on their assignment of reducing crime and minimizing property damage once they make it to the nation’s capital.

“National Guard soldiers and airmen are uniquely qualified to help in these types of situations. Our Hoosier Guardsmen regularly prepare, train and work side-by-side with civilian first responders, and our Guardsmen are ready for this mission as well,” Maj. Gen. Larry Muennich, the adjutant general for the Indiana National Guard, said in a statement.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrissey, a Republican, ordered his National Guard to remain in the District through the end of the year.

The governor said he will evaluate the need for troops to remain in the District through the end of his state’s fiscal year, which concludes in June.

More than 2,000 Guardsmen from multiple Republican-led states are stationed in the District as part of the White House’s public safety mission.

But about 150 troops from West Virginia returned home earlier this week, and the D.C. National Guard sought help from Indiana to keep numbers up.

The Guard has served more as a visual deterrent than a law-enforcement unit. Troops largely patrol tourist hotspots — such as the National Mall and Georgetown, and some Metro stops near downtown — while federal agents with the FBI, U.S. Marshals and Homeland Security make arrests around the city.

That hasn’t stopped the White House from extending the Guard’s mission on two separate occasions.

The first was in September, when President Trump’s federal crime emergency expired after a 30-day period. He sought to keep the Guard in the District through the end of November so the troops could cash in on health and housing benefits.

Last month, the Defense Department extended the mission again through the end of February.

The Indiana National Guard said its deployment could last as long as four months, which would put troops in the District through March.  

The results of the Trump administration’s crime crackdown have been mixed.

During the summer surge in August, D.C. leaders celebrated a massive drop in killings, muggings and carjackings produced by the greater police presence.

But violence has spiked in recent weekends.

A dozen people were wounded in several different shootings across the city on a weekend night in October.

A Halloween melee in the Navy Yard made headlines after National Guard troops were seen attempting to corral scrappy youths.

And four people were killed within six hours on Nov. 8 in different shootings and stabbings throughout the District.

Metropolitan Police data shows violent crime in the nation’s capital is down 29% in the past year.