President Trump announced the deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., attempting to address the president’s claims of rampant crime earlier this month. As the deployment continued, Howard students returned to campus, enjoying welcome week activities, moving into dorms and starting classes on Monday, Aug. 18.
Some students have expressed their dismay at the National Guard’s deployment, with rumors of federal officer sightings on campus spreading throughout the campus community.
Kevin Ham, a freshman musical theater major from Toledo, Ohio, posted a TikTok video of a helicopter hovering near campus. Ham was attending an outdoor movie screening on The Yard when he noticed the aircraft.
“It started to get a little bit weird when the same helicopter came back and it repeated that cycle,” Ham said.
Ham said he saw the helicopter fly over campus about eight times, at one point shining a light on the grounds. While the Hilltop was not able to confirm if Ham’s helicopter sighting was in relation to Trump’s deployment, sightings of low and hovering helicopters have increased in Washington, D.C., specifically on Capitol Hill, which is only three miles from Howard’s campus.
The Hilltop has not found evidence of federal officers directly on Howard’s main campus. However, videos of arrests in nearby neighborhoods such as Columbia Heights and Logan Circle and on U Street raise questions about how close federal officers may come. Student opinions on the university’s response varied, but many said their campus experience remained unaffected.
Cole Davis, a sophomore business management major from Atlanta, Georgia feels that the university has provided a safe and welcoming environment, despite the increase in law enforcement.
“Although Howard has many other issues that they’re handling right now, I feel like campus safety is pretty good,” Davis said.
Ham agreed, saying that aside from the noise of sirens on his walk to the Odd Fellows Building, his school experience had been uninterrupted.
Dr. Richard Seltzer, a professor in the Political Science Department, has lived in Washington for 45 years, and highlighted that the deployment of the national guard is concerning by itself, pointing to when various states sent in their National Guard for January 6th and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, and various natural disasters. “The Guard is being (deployed) for very political reasons. Crime simply the pretext,” said Seltzer. While Selzer does not deny D.C. has crime, he does not believe its severity warrants a federal takeover.
Trump cited high crime as the reason for the deployment; however, data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) shows an alternative story. Ward 1, which houses Howard’s main campus, saw a gradual slope in assaults with a dangerous weapon and thefts with auto since 2015. Homicide reached a ten-year peak in 2023, with a 46 percent decrease in 2024 and an additional 44 percent decrease in August, as compared to the year prior.
Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 1E, which houses Howard University, saw a 14 percent decrease in all incidents in 2024 and a 4 percent decrease in 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. However, Ward 1 has experienced a rise in motor vehicle theft since 2020 and a rise in sex abuse since 2022, with four MPD-reported occurrences in the past year.
The Department of Public Safety did not provide a comment in time for publication.
The Office of Communications (OUC) stated, “Howard University prioritizes public safety and has taken proactive measures to address the campus community’s concerns over the heightened federal law enforcement presence during the D.C. Takeover period.”
An Aug. 14 message from the OUC advised the Howard University Community to always carry identification, take precautions when driving and follow rules of the road, follow instructions from law personnel and become familiar with the University’s ICE encounter recommendations.
Seltzer believes that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) imposes a greater threat to campus life than the National Guard, and that Howard needs to update their ICE protocol. “[Howard] has not resent [ICE recommendations] this year, which they should do because, you know, what happens if they come to my classroom? What are my abilities? What do I say, what do I do?”
As of Aug. 24, six states have deployed or pledged to deploy their own state troops to D.C., raising the number to roughly 2,000 according to NBC News.
Copy Edited by D’Nyah Jefferson- Philmore
