Some mayors and police chiefs said they would welcome more traditional law enforcement cooperation with federal agents, but see the National Guard as a step too far.
Crime has fallen since federal agents started policing the streets of Washington in large numbers. Court records show that they have been involved in about a third of arrests that resulted in prosecution, many of them for minor offenses.
Many of the arrests in Washington, D.C., involving federal agents have been for low-level offenses. A man was taken into custody in the Columbia Heights neighborhood Aug. 22 on a charge of smoking marijuana in public.