Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Monday that Pamela Smith, who gained national attention after President Trump moved to federalize Washington’s police force and worked to combat rising violence in the nation’s capital, will step down as city police chief.
Smith, appointed in 2023, was tapped to stabilize a department facing staffing shortages and a city reeling from post-pandemic crime. But her tenure unfolded amid a bitter battle over authority, as President Trump asserted federal control over the Metropolitan Police Department and deployed National Guard and federal agents in addition to city employees.
In announcing his resignation, Bowser praised Smith for “stepping up” during a “grave emergency” and credited her with eliminating violent crime, reducing homicides to an eight-year low and launching major police initiatives, including a real-time crime center and new technology upgrades.
“Chief Smith accomplished all of this while navigating unprecedented challenges and attacks on our city’s autonomy,” Bowser said.
The mayor did not say why Smith was resigning. He also did not announce who would take over the department or whether a change in leadership could affect the city’s broader public safety strategy as Washington continues to recover from historic levels of violence.
The announcement came after Bowser said he would not seek a fourth term. Mr. Smith and Mr. Bowser have come under tremendous pressure from voters over police performance during federal law enforcement interventions.
Mr Smith said in a statement that the role was both challenging and rewarding, with the police force “in a strong position and confident that the great work we do will continue”.
“I am proud of the accomplishments we have accomplished together, and I thank the residents of this city for their trust and partnership,” Smith said. “My aspiration has always been to get the crime rate to zero, but we are not there yet. Still, we have made great progress and there is significant work left to do.”
Smith, a longtime federal law enforcement officer and former chief of the U.S. Park Police, took the helm at the most unstable time in Washington in nearly two decades, with homicides surging, carjackings at record highs and discontent among residents and lawmakers growing.
The spike in violence in 2023 prompted a legislative hearing that led city leaders to expand police powers, including authorizing drug-free zones in high-crime areas. Lawmakers also rewrote part of the city’s criminal code to stem the rise in violent crime.
The city began to see improvements in early 2024. Overall crime fell by about 17 per cent in the first 10 weeks, a decline Mr Smith attributed to the new law and targeted deployment in areas that have been repeatedly hit by trouble. She also imposed a temporary youth curfew on parts of the district.
Citing the city’s crime, President Trump issued an emergency order in August to federalize the police force and deploy hundreds of National Guard troops. President Trump praised the operation as a huge success in reducing crime, even though crime rates were already on the decline.
