President Donald Trump’s federalization of Washington, D.C., on the heels of declaring a “crime emergency,” was met with mixed reactions, but it has also launched a conversation among residents and members of the media about a subject that, for years, has been hidden in plain view.

News anchor Kyra Phillips mentioned on-air hours after Trump’s declaration that she was “jumped” just two blocks away from her Washington, D.C. studio, “within the last two years.”

Violent crime in the nation’s capital has reportedly dropped since 2023, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) cited by The Washington Post.

Still, Phillips pointed out that multiple alleged incidents have taken place near ABC News’ Washington, D.C., bureau — including two network employees who were reportedly among the victims.

“We’ve been talking so much about the numbers and yeah, usually that’s how you play devil’s advocate, is you talk about, ‘Oh, well stats say crime is down.’ However, I can tell you firsthand here in downtown D.C. where we work right here around our bureau just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot,” Phillips said. “One person died literally two blocks down here from the bureau.”

“It was within the last two years that I actually was jumped walking just two blocks down from here. And then just this morning one of my coworkers said her car was stolen a block away from the bureau,” she continued.

“So we can talk about the numbers going down, but crime is happening every single day because we’re all experiencing it firsthand while working and living down here,” Phillips continued.

Meanwhile, D.C. Police Commander Michael Pulliam is under investigation over allegations that he manipulated crime statistics, NBC4 Washington reported in July. The department suspended him, but Pulliam has denied any wrongdoing.

In fact, the move has been so successful that Washington, D.C., Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the city to continue working with federal law enforcement officers, even after Trump’s takeover is set to expire next week.

Bowser signed the order Tuesday, saying that city officials will “ensure coordination with federal law enforcement to the maximum extent allowable by law within the District” even when the public safety emergency Trump proclaimed over crime in D.C. last month ends. The order has no expiration date and takes effect right away.

Trump administration officials said in the weeks since their takeover, more than 1,000 people have been arrested in D.C.

The administration has bragged about a further decrease in crime during the takeover.

In a Monday post on Truth Social, Trump referred to the city as “a crime-free zone” and commended Bowser for helping with the crackdown. In her order, the mayor stated that since Trump federalized the city’s police department, “violent crime in the District has noticeably decreased.”

In a statement posted on social media, Bowser said that she issued the order “to provide the pathway forward beyond the Presidential emergency.”

Federal agencies have embedded with local police, assisting in arrests, searches, and warrant executions while patrolling the city in unmarked vehicles, CNN noted further.

At the same time, immigration enforcement surged. Since August 7, federal officials have arrested about 300 individuals in the district without legal immigration status — more than ten times the typical weekly number of ICE arrests in the city, CNN found.

During the first six months of Trump’s current term, ICE averaged about 12 arrests per week in Washington, according to data from the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Officials told CNN that ICE agents have been accompanying MPD officers and intervening when individuals stopped or questioned are found to be in the country unlawfully.

In response to CNN’s findings, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson stated that the media was attempting to dismiss the “exceptional results” of Trump’s efforts in Washington, D.C.

“The drops in crime are not ‘moderate,’ they are life-changing for the countless of DC residents and visitors who have not been murdered, robbed, carjacked, or victims of overall violent crime in the last week,” Jackson said. “The priority of this operation remains getting violent criminals off the streets — regardless of immigration status.”