From Fox News: Washington, D.C., police chief Pamela Smith is resigning her position after just two and a half years on the job, she announced Monday.
Smith has faced intense pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration, which took over the Metropolitan Police Department earlier this year and deployed federal law enforcement throughout the city.
“There comes a time when you just know it’s time,” Smith told Axios, which first reported her resignation.
“I am deeply humbled, grateful, and deeply appreciative of my time with the District of Columbia. Serving as Chief of Police has been the greatest honor of my career, and I want to extend my sincere thanks to Mayor Muriel Bowser for appointing me to this position and to the DC Council for their steadfast support throughout my tenure,” she said in a statement.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department opened an investigation into allegations that her deputies manipulated crime data. The report notes that, as of October, about three dozen rank-and-file officers and detectives had filed complaints with the Justice Department, accusing top officials on the department of reclassifying crimes to make the city’s crime data appear less serious.
In a statement announcing Smith’s resignation, Mayor Muriel Bowser claimed that Smith “dramatically drove down violent crime, drove down the homicide rate to its lowest levels in 3 years, and helped us to restore a sense of safety and accountability in our neighborhoods.”
However, in reality, crime was so bad by the time President Trump returned to the Oval Office in January that he had to order cleanups of the homeless communities, and had to send in the national guard to get crime under control.
Today, I announced that Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith will be stepping down.
My statement: pic.twitter.com/fg1iEaBmOz— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) December 8, 2025
Recently, Smith was widely mocked for not knowing what “chain of command” meant when asked by a reporter.
Reporter: “Do you know what the chain of command is now?”
Pamela Smith, D.C. Police Chief: “What does that mean?”
This is who is in charge of the police in D.C… pic.twitter.com/wGYPj7iNrg
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 12, 2025
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