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Washington’s police chief, Pamela Smith, is resigning after less than two years in the role amid an ongoing battle over control of the city’s law enforcement as Donald Trump moved to federalize the Metropolitan police department.
Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Smith’s departure on Monday, praising her leadership during a period of “significant urgency” for the nation’s capital.
“Chief Smith got all of this done while navigating unprecedented challenges and attacks on our city’s autonomy,” Bowser said in a statement. “Chief Smith dramatically drove down violent crime, drove down the homicide rate to its lowest levels in eight years, and helped us restore a sense of safety and accountability in our neighborhoods.”
The departure marks the second major leadership change in Washington in weeks as the city grapples with Trump’s aggressive assertions of federal authority over local governance. Bowser announced in late November she would not seek re-election in 2026, a decision that came after months of dealing with the Trump administration over control of the city’s police force and immigration enforcement.
Smith, who made history in 2023 as the first Black woman to lead the Metropolitan police department, said her decision was unconnected to the deployment of national guard troops to the city. She told Fox 5 the resignation was instead driven by a desire to spend more time with family.
“I have been going nonstop. I have missed many amazing celebrations, birthdays, marriages, you name it, within our family,” she said. “And being able to come home for Thanksgiving two years after my mom passed really resonated with me.”
Smith will reportedly resign on 31 December, according to Axios. The mayor’s statement did not provide a timeline for naming a successor, or indicate whether the leadership change might affect Washington’s broader public safety strategy.
In August, Trump declared a public safety emergency in an executive order and placed the MPD under federal control for 30 days, deploying more than 2,000 national guard troops to the capital. The federalization expired in September, though national guard troops remain deployed through February 2026, and the president threatened to reimpose control if the city does not cooperate with immigration enforcement operations.
Smith’s tenure began during one of Washington’s most violent periods in nearly two decades. In 2023, the city recorded 274 homicides – the highest number since 1997 – while carjackings hit 959, a record. The spike prompted congressional hearings and led city officials to expand police powers, including authorizing drug-free zones in high-crime areas and rewriting portions of the criminal code.
By early 2024, the city began seeing improvements. Overall crime dropped approximately 17% in the first 10 weeks of the year, a decline Smith attributed to new legislation and targeted deployments. The justice department reported in January 2025 that violent crime in DC had fallen 35% from 2023, reaching its lowest level in over 30 years.
However, the justice department and House Republicans are investigating allegations from a whistleblower that MPD supervisors manipulated crime statistics. One police commander was placed on leave in May amid the investigation, and Smith told Axios she “would never say to anyone to alter stats” but declined to say whether other personnel were on leave in connection with the inquiry.
Smith, a 28-year law enforcement veteran and former chief of the US Park police, said in a statement: “I am proud of the accomplishments we achieved together, and I thank the residents of this city for their trust and partnership. While my aspiration has always been to see zero per cent crime, we are not there yet. Nonetheless, we have made tremendous progress, and there remains important work ahead.”
