Pete Hegseth (Getty Images)
War Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized National Guard troops in Washington to use boats, marked patrol cars, and military tactical vehicles to support police, deepening a deployment now more than a year old.
An Oct. 29 memo allows up to 60 marked patrol cars, up to 20 light towers and generators, and D.C. National Guard boats “in support of federal and local law enforcement operations,” a Pentagon official told The Hill.
The official tied the move to the White House’s Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful mission.
Politico, which first reported the memo, said the vehicles include Humvees and light medium tactical vehicles, equipment typically used on battlefields, and that the authority runs through the end of the year.
The memo does not explain why the expansion is happening now, the outlet reported.
The Associated Press, which obtained two Oct. 29 memos, reported that troops backing anti-gang and drug operations may now carry rifles alongside their pistols.
Hegseth capped the force at 3,500, below a summer peak of about 5,000 during America’s 250th anniversary celebrations, AP said.
The new authority keeps limits in place. Patrol cars must be marked “National Guard,” and troops must be in uniform, according to AP.
Politico reported that Guard members still cannot pursue suspects or make arrests, and that under the memo the boats will secure the perimeter for police targeting suspected gang leaders and drug traffickers in Anacostia, in southeast Washington.
The vessels may not surveil U.S. citizens, and federal officers “must always be on board” to make arrests, including when suspects try to escape into the river.
Nearly 3,100 Guard members are in the city. The deployment began after Trump declared a crime emergency on Aug. 11, 2025, and placed the Metropolitan Police Department under federal direction, and it is expected to last through Inauguration Day 2029.
The price tag keeps climbing.
Jules Hurst, the Pentagon comptroller nominee, estimated in an August written response to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that the mission would cost about $1.43 billion more from October 2026 through January 2029, on top of what had already been spent, Roll Call reported.
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