While the highly visible National Guard presence helped reduce opportunistic property crime by 24%, policy analysts note it had little impact on violent crime and arrived when overall crime was already on a downward trend. Tuesday marks exactly one year since President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the District of Columbia and deployed National Guard troops to patrol city streets. However, Richard Hahn of the Niskanen Center noted that the National Guard was introduced into an environment where crime rates were already trending downward. According to the MPD, violent crime has seen mixed trends compared to last year: while homicides are down by roughly a third, assaults with a dangerous weapon have increased by over 40%. The group Free DC has organized 11 events to mark the anniversary of the deployment.