Trump warns he's ready to 'send in the Feds' to Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump says he's ready to "send in the Feds" if Chicago can't reduce its homicide problem, and the city's police superintendent says he is "more than willing" to work with the federal government to combat the violence.

Trump tweeted Tuesday night: "If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible 'carnage' going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!"

In response to the president's tweet, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson reiterated the city is receptive to assistance from the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. He also repeated city officials have sought a "boost" in federal prosecution rates for gun crimes in Chicago since homicide figures spiked.

Trump offered no details on what federal intervention would look like, though many of the conceivable options would pose practical and constitutional obstacles.

The most direct – and most extreme – intervention would be sending National Guard troops. But a federal statute dating to 1878 prohibits the deployment of federal troops to do the jobs of domestic police, with some narrow, rarely invoked exceptions.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in an interview with WTTW's "Chicago Tonight" on Tuesday, said he welcomed government help in the form of more money to hire officers and more resources to track the flow of illegal guns into Chicago.

Emanuel, a Democrat who once worked as former President Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, also mentioned support for after-school and other social programs.

"The federal government can be a partner, and to be honest they haven't been for decades," he said.