Gov. Mike DeWine agreed Wednesday to extend how long 150 members of the Ohio National Guard will be stationed in Washington D.C., while saying he doesn’t envision a similar need for them in any of Ohio’s cities.
DeWine said he believes local law enforcement agencies already on the ground should be the ones targeting violent crime in Ohio. As commander-in-chief of the Guard, he sees the state military force’s duties as different here, he said.
“Involving crowds, involving unruliness,” DeWine said. “There’s a role for the Guard, but when you’re talking about violent crime, it needs to be very pinpointed.”
Guard members have been mobilized for weeks in Washington, under an order from President Trump, who claims the city is facing a crime emergency, though statistics show violent crime there is at a 30-year low. Trump has threatened to send Guard members to other Democrat-led major cities on similar missions.
In 2024, however, the violent crime rate was higher in Cleveland than it was in Washington, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data. Cincinnati and Columbus saw lower violent crime rates than both cities.
When asked whether those Ohio rates warranted similar federal involvement, U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno told the Statehouse News Bureau he believes Cleveland officials “need to get serious about fighting crime” to avoid eventual intervention.
“Cleveland has an extraordinarily high crime rate, and it doesn’t seem like the elected officials there, whether it’s city council, the mayor, are doing enough to take care of it,” Moreno said in an interview last week. “As long as these statistics continue to stay this high, we can’t just turn a blind eye.”
From 2023 to 2024, the FBI documented violent crime rates as decreasing nationwide by nearly 4.5%. Homicides fell by as much as 15%.
DeWine has defended his decision to send those Ohio guard members to Washington, who the Secretary of the Army requested for 30 days in August. He's said it was consistent with his decision to send requested troops to Minnesota during protests following the George Floyd killing in 2020, and to southern states to help with weather-related cleanup. The Guar'd D.C. assignment will now go until Nov. 30, DeWine said late Wednesday.
Democratic politicians and progressive organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have denounced the federal militarization of the Guard. The administration’s actions have been subject to more than one lawsuit.
