September 5, 2025 • 7 mins
NEW: The National Guard to stay in D.C. through November. Live reaction from the head of the D.C. Police Union in the Nation's Capitol. Plus, Gregg Pemberton's take on the Chicago vs. President Trump showdown -Powered by Disaster Plus
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Surprise, surprise. Over the past five years, we have had
a mass exodus the police officers out of our department
and skyrocketing crime rate.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is the Kelly Golden Show podcast powered by Disaster
Plus on a Big Fail Friday.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Straight to Greg Pimberton, who's chairman of the DC Police Union. Boy,
you look at the headlines this morning, Greg, it's unbelievable.
You've got Washington, DC suing the president over the National
Guard troops who say, now knew this morning that they're
going to be there through November.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
How are you great?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Thanks for having me, So let's dig into this. Happy
to see that the DC Union was on the side
of the Trump administration with regards to them coming to
DC and cleaning up what has been a crime ridden
city for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, that's right. It's important to know how we got here.
So five years ago, our very liberal city Council passed
a boatload of radical legislation that was designed to defund
the police hamstring police officers. Make sure cops were exposed
to administrative, civil, and even criminal sanctions even when they
went out and did their job properly. In addition, they
made sure that they protected criminals and there was nothing
(01:06):
we could do to hold them accountable even when they
were convicted of committing violent crimes. So a surprise surprise,
over the past five years, we have had a mass
exodus of police officers out of our department and skyrocketing
crime rate. And as a matter of fact, we have
a sworn strength of four thousand police officers here in
the District of Columbia. However we only have three and eighty,
(01:27):
leaving us with eight hundred vacancies for the position as
sworn officer. And no one should be surprised that we
needed help from the federal government to send in these
federal agents in the National Guard to get crime under
control because we just did not have enough officers and
the officers we did have were prohibited from doing their
job properly. So look, anybody with a shred of common
(01:47):
sense can see that if you have areas that are
plagued with crime and you send in police officers and
allow them to do their job, guess what criminals get
locked up in. Crime plummets. And that's exactly what we've
seen over the past month and what we're is now
we've seen that many Congressmen and Senators are introducing legislation
to undo what the city council did back in twenty twenty,
(02:08):
and that's the most promising aspect of all of this,
and hopefully we can get through this and have some
permanent fixes to keep the nation's capital safe.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
DC Police Chairman, if you're just tuning in, Greg pimber
tend to reiterate, the big fail would be the policy
problem that's leading to the recruitment problem.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Right, You're absolutely right. So our DC government's budget has
has an amount of money that is budgeted to hire
up to four thousand police officers that has been in
the budget for some time now. We just cannot get
the recruits in the academy. It's not an attractive place
to work because of those policy issues and because of
the way officers are treated here in the district. So
(02:46):
we have a hamorrhaging of officers both through resignations and
early retirements, and we have a very dismal outlook on
applicants who are applying to get into the academy, and
that has resulted in about one hundred or one hundred
and twenty net losses of officers per year. So it's
not a budgetary issue. This all comes down to how
we treat police officers and whether or not we allow
them to do their jobs properly well.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
And despite them talking about budget issues, haven't they been
offering thousands of dollars in bonuses And it hasn't even mattered.
Did they try to throw money at this with regards
to the policy failures?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
That's right. We have twenty five thousand dollars signing bonuses
once you're hired on the department. In addition to that,
they have a six thousand dollars housing allowance that they'll
pay for your rent once you come and move into
the city. That has not moved the needle at all
in terms of attracting new personnel. And the reason again
is that the narrative that's out there is that this
is not an attractive place to work. So hopefully, with
(03:40):
this federal involvement, and now that we have Congress and
the White House looking into these policies and understanding how
detrimental and devastating they've been to our nation's capital, they're
now taking action to undo that stuff. So listen, if
these bills can pass and we can get these underlying
pieces of legislation scuttle. I think we can be off
to the races and that that hiring will jump up
(04:02):
and those officers that are looking for greener pastors might
change their minds and stay here, and that ultimately that's
the goal. Because while we appreciate the federal assistance and
we appreciate the President's sending this in we needed to help.
We can do this job. You know, we're a fully competent,
fully capable police department. We just need the number of
the proper number of police officers and we need the
(04:23):
policies in place so that we can do our job.
And if we can get those other two things, I
think we can make the nation's capital safe.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
You mentioned narrative a big fail this Friday is the
narrative that there's your real crime problem, Greg, Greg crime
is down.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, Well, there's a lot of questions about that crime
data and a lot of that is starting to come out,
and I think those narratives are unraveling. In twenty twenty three,
we had the most violent gear on record in the
past twenty years. We had two hundred and eighty homicides,
We had nine hundred and sixty carjackings, the robberies, the shootings,
the stabbings were in the thousands and since then, in
(04:59):
twenty twenty four or the police department reported a thirty
six percent drop in crime, and then in twenty twenty
five they reported another twenty five percent drop in crime.
But we knew that those numbers were suspicious because our
members are out on the street, we're running call to
call to call, and we're actually trying to document what's happening.
And so there are two issues that have cropped up. One,
the police department is now investigating command staff officials for
(05:21):
going into police databases and changing felonies to misdemeanors. And
our members are reporting that when they go to these scenes,
whether it's a shooting or a robbery or stabbing, that
management officials are coming to those scenes and directing them
to take reports for lesser offense. So a robbery becomes
a theft, you know, a shooting becomes an injured person
at the hospital. You know, different burglaries can become unlawful entries.
(05:45):
And so what's happening is over time, they're manipulating these
stats so that it appears crime is going down, But
I can assure you that crime has not gone down.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, redefining what crime truly is. So if you're just
joining us, Greg Pimberton, chairman of the DC Police Union,
what is your message given the fact that we could
see a rinse and repeat of what's happened in DC
in Chicago, maybe as early as this weekend, you've heard
all the narrative making headlines from their mayor and governor.
Do you have any kind of message to the police
(06:15):
union in Chicago or any kind of contacts or communications
with them.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
John Katzar runs a police Fop Lodge seven for the
Chicago Police Department, and he's a great guy. He's been
representing his members for some time now, and I'm sure
he's going to welcome this assistant. The problem that the
administration is going to have is that, as you mentioned,
both Governor Prisker and Mayor Johnson are both going to
fight him on bringing that in and they're going to
(06:39):
litigate this issue and it's going to end up being
drug out through the courts. What I would say is,
I think the president is going to have much more
luck in places like Missouri and Louisiana, where cities like
Saint Louis and New Orleans. While those are Democrat cities.
Those states have Republican trifectas and their state legislature, and
those state legislators can do exactly what conver is doing
(07:00):
in DC, which is to go into those cities and
repeal the bad law that has created these crime strikes.
And I think that's those are the places that they
should focus on. I would love to see them going
to Chicago and lower that crime rate that the city
is suffering horribly from violent crime, but I will say
it's going to be a legal challenge for the administration
(07:21):
to be successful there.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
DC Police Union Chairman Greg Pemberton, thanks for taking some time,
good luck.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I appreciate it. You guys have a great day, all right.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Thanks Greg.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
This Big Fail Friday edition of That Kelly Golden Show
podcast is powered by Disaster Plus
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Buzz bus called seven Queen Boll of seven Queen Boll
of seven
Surprise, surprise. Over the past five years, we have had
a mass exodus the police officers out of our department
and skyrocketing crime rate.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is the Kelly Golden Show podcast powered by Disaster
Plus on a Big Fail Friday.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Straight to Greg Pimberton, who's chairman of the DC Police Union. Boy,
you look at the headlines this morning, Greg, it's unbelievable.
You've got Washington, DC suing the president over the National
Guard troops who say, now knew this morning that they're
going to be there through November.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
How are you great?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Thanks for having me, So let's dig into this. Happy
to see that the DC Union was on the side
of the Trump administration with regards to them coming to
DC and cleaning up what has been a crime ridden
city for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Yeah, that's right. It's important to know how we got here.
So five years ago, our very liberal city Council passed
a boatload of radical legislation that was designed to defund
the police hamstring police officers. Make sure cops were exposed
to administrative, civil, and even criminal sanctions even when they
went out and did their job properly. In addition, they
made sure that they protected criminals and there was nothing
(01:06):
we could do to hold them accountable even when they
were convicted of committing violent crimes. So a surprise surprise,
over the past five years, we have had a mass
exodus of police officers out of our department and skyrocketing
crime rate. And as a matter of fact, we have
a sworn strength of four thousand police officers here in
the District of Columbia. However we only have three and eighty,
(01:27):
leaving us with eight hundred vacancies for the position as
sworn officer. And no one should be surprised that we
needed help from the federal government to send in these
federal agents in the National Guard to get crime under
control because we just did not have enough officers and
the officers we did have were prohibited from doing their
job properly. So look, anybody with a shred of common
(01:47):
sense can see that if you have areas that are
plagued with crime and you send in police officers and
allow them to do their job, guess what criminals get
locked up in. Crime plummets. And that's exactly what we've
seen over the past month and what we're is now
we've seen that many Congressmen and Senators are introducing legislation
to undo what the city council did back in twenty twenty,
(02:08):
and that's the most promising aspect of all of this,
and hopefully we can get through this and have some
permanent fixes to keep the nation's capital safe.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
DC Police Chairman, if you're just tuning in, Greg pimber
tend to reiterate, the big fail would be the policy
problem that's leading to the recruitment problem.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Right, You're absolutely right. So our DC government's budget has
has an amount of money that is budgeted to hire
up to four thousand police officers that has been in
the budget for some time now. We just cannot get
the recruits in the academy. It's not an attractive place
to work because of those policy issues and because of
the way officers are treated here in the district. So
(02:46):
we have a hamorrhaging of officers both through resignations and
early retirements, and we have a very dismal outlook on
applicants who are applying to get into the academy, and
that has resulted in about one hundred or one hundred
and twenty net losses of officers per year. So it's
not a budgetary issue. This all comes down to how
we treat police officers and whether or not we allow
them to do their jobs properly well.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
And despite them talking about budget issues, haven't they been
offering thousands of dollars in bonuses And it hasn't even mattered.
Did they try to throw money at this with regards
to the policy failures?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
That's right. We have twenty five thousand dollars signing bonuses
once you're hired on the department. In addition to that,
they have a six thousand dollars housing allowance that they'll
pay for your rent once you come and move into
the city. That has not moved the needle at all
in terms of attracting new personnel. And the reason again
is that the narrative that's out there is that this
is not an attractive place to work. So hopefully, with
(03:40):
this federal involvement, and now that we have Congress and
the White House looking into these policies and understanding how
detrimental and devastating they've been to our nation's capital, they're
now taking action to undo that stuff. So listen, if
these bills can pass and we can get these underlying
pieces of legislation scuttle. I think we can be off
to the races and that that hiring will jump up
(04:02):
and those officers that are looking for greener pastors might
change their minds and stay here, and that ultimately that's
the goal. Because while we appreciate the federal assistance and
we appreciate the President's sending this in we needed to help.
We can do this job. You know, we're a fully competent,
fully capable police department. We just need the number of
the proper number of police officers and we need the
(04:23):
policies in place so that we can do our job.
And if we can get those other two things, I
think we can make the nation's capital safe.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
You mentioned narrative a big fail this Friday is the
narrative that there's your real crime problem, Greg, Greg crime
is down.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, Well, there's a lot of questions about that crime
data and a lot of that is starting to come out,
and I think those narratives are unraveling. In twenty twenty three,
we had the most violent gear on record in the
past twenty years. We had two hundred and eighty homicides,
We had nine hundred and sixty carjackings, the robberies, the shootings,
the stabbings were in the thousands and since then, in
(04:59):
twenty twenty four or the police department reported a thirty
six percent drop in crime, and then in twenty twenty
five they reported another twenty five percent drop in crime.
But we knew that those numbers were suspicious because our
members are out on the street, we're running call to
call to call, and we're actually trying to document what's happening.
And so there are two issues that have cropped up. One,
the police department is now investigating command staff officials for
(05:21):
going into police databases and changing felonies to misdemeanors. And
our members are reporting that when they go to these scenes,
whether it's a shooting or a robbery or stabbing, that
management officials are coming to those scenes and directing them
to take reports for lesser offense. So a robbery becomes
a theft, you know, a shooting becomes an injured person
at the hospital. You know, different burglaries can become unlawful entries.
(05:45):
And so what's happening is over time, they're manipulating these
stats so that it appears crime is going down, But
I can assure you that crime has not gone down.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, redefining what crime truly is. So if you're just
joining us, Greg Pimberton, chairman of the DC Police Union,
what is your message given the fact that we could
see a rinse and repeat of what's happened in DC
in Chicago, maybe as early as this weekend, you've heard
all the narrative making headlines from their mayor and governor.
Do you have any kind of message to the police
(06:15):
union in Chicago or any kind of contacts or communications
with them.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
John Katzar runs a police Fop Lodge seven for the
Chicago Police Department, and he's a great guy. He's been
representing his members for some time now, and I'm sure
he's going to welcome this assistant. The problem that the
administration is going to have is that, as you mentioned,
both Governor Prisker and Mayor Johnson are both going to
fight him on bringing that in and they're going to
(06:39):
litigate this issue and it's going to end up being
drug out through the courts. What I would say is,
I think the president is going to have much more
luck in places like Missouri and Louisiana, where cities like
Saint Louis and New Orleans. While those are Democrat cities.
Those states have Republican trifectas and their state legislature, and
those state legislators can do exactly what conver is doing
(07:00):
in DC, which is to go into those cities and
repeal the bad law that has created these crime strikes.
And I think that's those are the places that they
should focus on. I would love to see them going
to Chicago and lower that crime rate that the city
is suffering horribly from violent crime, but I will say
it's going to be a legal challenge for the administration
(07:21):
to be successful there.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
DC Police Union Chairman Greg Pemberton, thanks for taking some time,
good luck.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I appreciate it. You guys have a great day, all right.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Thanks Greg.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
This Big Fail Friday edition of That Kelly Golden Show
podcast is powered by Disaster Plus
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Buzz bus called seven Queen Boll of seven Queen Boll
of seven
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