During what’s gearing up to be a major shift for the District government, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith is resigning from her position as the top local law enforcement official at the end of the year.
Smith, who’s currently embroiled in the controversy of post-surge federal-law enforcement collusion and a congressional investigation into Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) crime data, told reporters that her decision to step down stems from nothing more than a desire to rest.
“I’ve had 28 years in law enforcement,” Smith said on Monday during a press briefing on the seventh floor of D.C. Department of Health on Shannon Place in Southeast. “I’ve had some time to think with my family. This has really been a fast-paced role because it is in a major city. I know that the challenges that we faced have had some high points and we’ve had some low points, but respectfully, right now, this is a personal decision for myself and for my family.”
Smith became MPD chief in the summer of 2023, during a post-pandemic crime wave that had the District and other major U.S. cities under siege.
Under her leadership, the District experienced a significant reduction in homicides, a 52% decline in shootings over the last two years, and the removal of thousands of firearms. With the implementation of traffic safety compliance checkpoints and impounding of more than 1,300 scooters, the District also experienced a 47% reduction in traffic fatalities in 2025.
Smith has also touted the creation of the Juvenile Investigative Response Unit and launch of MPD’s Real Time Crime Center as feats that laid the foundation for a more effective response to crime. Other accomplishments include an increase in starting salary for recruits and a spur in recruitment events that’s, in part, credited with an 11% year-to-date increase in MPD recruit applications.
After the D.C. Council’s approval of temporary emergency juvenile curfew this summer, MPD, under Smith’s leadership, issued 15 juvenile curfew zones. The police department has also held more than 2,000 community events throughout the District while engaging hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors in outreach programs.
Smith, who’s ending her tour of duty on Dec. 31, said she and the officers under her command laid a solid foundation for her successor.
“The men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department are owed a great deal of gratitude from all of us, and I cannot express my admiration and unwavering commitment and support that our members have really worked hard in keeping our city safe,” Smith said. “It is my hope and certainly my anticipation that we will continue to move forward with this same effort in 2026.”
Questions About Police-Community Relations, Local-Federal Law Enforcement Collusion, and a Congressional Investigation
In a statement, the D.C. Police Union implored Bowser to collaborate with them in her search for a chief that “demonstrate[s] proven leadership qualities that prioritize respect for rank-and-file officers, foster trust within our communities, and commit to reforming broken policies.”
Earlier in the correspondence, the union questioned the timing of Smith’s resignation, noting an investigation by the U.S. House Oversight Committee and U.S. Department of Justice into allegations that MPD manipulated crime data.
On Monday, Smith declined to comment on the investigation.
Smith’s announcement comes amid MPD’s post-surge relationship with federal law enforcement agencies. While ICE continues to detain those perceived as undocumented, the officers affiliated with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), have fired shots, on separate occasions, at two Black motorists in the easternmost parts of the District.
During a moment that was caught on camera earlier this year near D.C. Bilingual Public Charter School, MPD, HSI and other federal agents were on the scene of a traffic stop-turned-immigration arrest. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruled that warrantless immigration arrests cannot continue, with a mandate that, within 30 days, the court checks to see if the Trump administration follows the order.
Meanwhile, Smith continues to deny any relationship with immigration law enforcement personnel.
“We’ve said it a lot that we do not work with ICE,” she told The Informer on Monday.
Last week, Smith didn’t appear before the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety during a marathon hearing that allowed for discussion about, among other topics, MPD’s collaboration with federal agencies, as outlined in the mayoral order earlier this year that created the Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center.
She did, however, later weigh in on what she described as the specifics of that collaboration, telling The Informer that the Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center builds upon MPD’s already-existing relationship with federal law enforcement.
“We do work with our other federal partners,” Smith said, “and the way that is designed and created, I think, has helped us to some degree with regards to making sure that if they’re going to be here, that we have an opportunity to know exactly where they are and how they can work with us in the space of public safety. They are assigned to all seven of our districts. They do come to attend our roll calls, and then they do go out with our crime suppression team and our special mission unit officers.”
Some people, like Michael Campbell, said this arrangement has soured police-community relations, while further endangering a vulnerable population.
“They aren’t trained to properly handle our particular constituency [that has] mental health challenges, emotional needs that they need to take care of,” Campbell, an organizer and clergyperson, said about the federal law enforcement agents. “A lot of the military personnel don’t have that kind of training. Even some of our federal officers don’t have that kind of training to interact with this type of constituency on a day-to-day basis. That’s just not what they’re qualified for. As a result, when the interactions do happen, it just ends up with more trust being lost.”
Campbell went on to tell The Informer that rectifying the issue of local-federal law enforcement collusion — and congressional intrusion in local affairs — will require changing the power dynamics between the District and the federal government.
“When you talk about where this city is going over the last 10 years, statehood is very important for us,” Campbell said. “That’s strictly because of some of the policies that have been threatened. We have policy that actually helps rehabilitate youth when they are incarcerated or locked down, for better or worse, but our Congress sometimes threatens that process.”
Weeks after the officer-involved death of 25-year-old David Warren Childs, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Anthony Lorenzo Green is expressing similar worry about the shape that the District’s public safety ecosystem will take.
“We keep having the same conversations after each tragedy,” Green wrote in a text message. “We can’t arrest our way out of systemic problems. Public safety has to include stable housing, opportunities for young people, mental-health supports, and a police department that understands the neighborhoods it serves.”
In reflecting on next steps, Green called for what some, in past years, have called a revamping of the system.
“This moment doesn’t call for another ‘reset,’” Green wrote. “It calls for a real re-alignment of priorities — where the community isn’t an afterthought, but the starting point. That begins with community control of policing.”
On the evening of Nov. 22, Green and other Deanwood residents hosted a balloon release and candlelight vigil for Childs, known to many as Lil’ Dave. Four days earlier, a Sixth District MPD officer shot and killed Childs at the end of an on-foot pursuit that, according to MPD’s statement, started on the 4700 block of Minnesota Avenue NE where local and federal officers were “proactively patrolling.”
After a “brief struggle” and “multiple loud commands” for Childs to show his hands, the officer shot and killed Childs on the 1200 block of 47th Place.
MPD said they recovered a firearm at the scene. The officer in question has since been placed on administrative leave while MPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau conducts an investigation.
“That pain is real,” Green said about Childs’ death. “And it reinforces what we’ve been saying for years: our community deserves transparency, accountability, and investment in people — not just tougher rhetoric or more aggressive tactics. We also expect Lil Dave’s murder to be handled with honesty and urgency.”
Green, giving a nod to Smith’s clergy background, acknowledged the chief’s “complicated” legacy in Deanwood, telling The Informer that, when she first took on the role, community members expected her to create “real safety.”
That request has yet to be fulfilled, Green said.
“While she came in with promises of reform, the day-to-day experience for many people in my community hasn’t changed in the ways we needed,” he told The Informer. “We’re still dealing with slow response times to calls for service, inconsistent engagement, and a policing model that too often reacts to crises instead of preventing them.”
A Different Perspective About Chief Smith; Mayor Bowser Responds to the Council’s Request
Though D.C. resident and longtime organizer Ron Moten acknowledged the Trump administration as a likely impetus in Smith’s decision to resign, he told The Informer that much of the blame also goes to the residents and local lawmakers who’ve been critical of the emergency juvenile curfew and other crime-reduction strategies.
“The problem is we want the government to babysit our children,” Moten said. “We want the government to feed our children. We want them to do everything instead of us saying, ‘How do we fix this s–t?,’ and then make the government work for us because we got our s—t.”
As the search for the next MPD chief commences, and races for mayor and several council seats get underway, Moten counts among those anxious about what he describes as policy suggestions that aren’t based in reality. He remains adamant that District residents, and Black residents at that, unite around leadership to create commonsense solutions.
“We’ll tear down our leaders instead of coming to a common ground and work with them to build stuff up,” Moten told The Informer. “And we let people come into our community…like they’re gonna be the savior. They can’t tell you one thing they’ve done. They come with theories that come from outside of our city, and then we try to enact them on D.C. as if they’re just gonna be cookie cutter.”
On Dec. 2, during its legislative meeting, the D.C. Council approved an extension of emergency juvenile curfew to April 15, 2026, with some council members demanding that the Bowser administration outlines Fiscal Year 2027 budget priorities for youth recreation.
On Monday, Bowser, speaking in response to that request, said that there’s already a plethora of resources for young people.
“They may not be as aware about the vast programming that’s available,” Bowser said about the council.
Bowser went on to suggest that the council not lose sight of the emergency juvenile curfew’s purpose: quelling mass youth gatherings in the District’s commercial centers. She said that that debate about extracurriculars and youth spaces is not relevant to that immediate goal.
“I do think it’s a bit of a red herring to talk about that in the juvenile curfew,” Bowser said. “I think they’re two different conversations, and I would hope that the council wouldn’t punt on what is working. I would want to make sure that they’re keeping tools in the toolbox that work, and it’s really separate and apart from questions about recreation activities, in my opinion.”