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Tuesday, Sep. 9, 2025

Are National Guard troops generally trained in law enforcement?

Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch
no

National Guard troops, like those President Donald Trump is using to crack down on big-city crime, generally are not trained in law enforcement.

Trump sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., in August as a crackdown. The Milwaukee police union president said he might ask Trump to send troops to Milwaukee.

D.C. police get 21 modules of criminal procedure training, and Guard members get none, an analysis found.

The Guard’s primary law enforcement training is crowd control, said the analysis’ co-author, Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

U.S. Naval War College professor Lindsay Cohn, a civil-military relations expert, said most Guard members are not trained in law enforcement, but some are spot-trained.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, head of the Wisconsin National Guard, said Guard members are the “wrong people” to fight crime because they’re not trained police officers.

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