Missouri senator cites National Guard’s presence in D.C. as option to curtail crime in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - As President Donald Trump considers sending the National Guard to cities like Memphis, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon, a Missouri senator is questioning whether it could help in Kansas City.

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt questioned Det. Gregg Pemberton, the Chairman of the D.C. Police Union, about the utilization of the National Guard in the nation’s capital and its impact on crime reduction.

“What lessons can be learned, sort of at scale in DC, in places like Kansas City, for example, that has a high crime rate and an apologist mayor and a prosecutor that doesn’t want to prosecute violent criminals?” Schmitt questioned Pemberton.

“You need to have the proper number of police officers, and they need to be able to have the tools and resources to go out into these communities and do their job,” said Pemberton. “If you do that, and you have a prosecutor that backs those officers, like we now do here in the District of Columbia, guess what? You can reduce crime in seven days. That’s what we saw in the District of Columbia.

READ MORE: Gov. Kehoe authorizes Missouri National Guard to assist in ICE enforcement

“We saw federal agents surge in, we saw the National Guard taking post in these neighborhoods, and we saw a prosecutor who took all of our arrests seriously. Within the first week there was a remarkable night and day difference.”

Schmitt praised the D.C. model for reducing crime and cited it as an option for Kansas City, Missouri.

President Trump has called the expansion of federal agents and National Guard troops into American cities as necessary to curb crime.

The questioning in D.C. came on the same day Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe authorized the Missouri National Guard to assist in ICE enforcement.