Marking her first year as the District’s police chief, Pamela Smith is touting data that show drops in crime, including declines in the number of homicides, carjackings and robberies.
Smith, who took the helm of the Metropolitan Police Department after 25 years with U.S. Park Police in 2023, said tougher laws, stronger prosecutions and improved police tactics have helped reduce crime so far this year, compared to the same period last year.
“When you talk about the numbers — we’re at a 33% reduction in violent crime, we’re at a 38% reduction in robberies, we’re at a 48% reduction in carjackings,” Smith told WTOP.
When the chief joined the department, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council were in the midst of rolling back some criminal justice reforms instituted in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
Smith said she’s not sure what to attribute to the rapid increase in crime in the city after 2020.
“What I will say is that one of the things that I think has been instrumental is the legislation that’s been passed. … The emergency legislation that was passed, ‘Safer, Stronger DC,’ ‘ACT Now,’ and all of those culminated into, what I believe, legislation that helped us drive down crime in the District,” Smith explained.
Holding criminals accountable
Recent laws like “Secure DC” and “Safer, Stronger DC” have, among other things, enhanced penalties for violent crimes and increased the number of people charged with a violent crime that D.C. Superior Court judges are encouraged to keep jailed before trial.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. also stepped up the number of Title 16 charges, in which some juveniles charged with violent crimes are charged as adults.
D.C. crime data, as of July 17, shows that there have been 98 homicides so far this year, compared to 134 at this time last year — a 26% reduction. Assault with a dangerous weapon is down 27% and motor vehicle thefts are down 34%.
Total crime in D.C. is down 18% compared to the same period last year.
“I think what we’re seeing is a combination of a lot of different things. Individuals are being held accountable, they’re being held in the jails, as opposed to being released to go back out into their community. We’re seeing judges, we’re seeing the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Office of Attorney General leveraging prosecution that helps us when it comes to the same individuals committing the same crimes,” she said.
Staffing deficiencies and asking for the public’s help
The Metropolitan Police Department remains understaffed — as do police agencies throughout the region and across the nation — but Smith said D.C. is doing well in comparison to some other agencies.
“We’ve not taken a significant decrease. As a matter of fact, we’ve seen a 30% reduction in our attrition rate. We’ve not seen many people leaving the job or retiring from the job at a rate where we thought it would outpace that. And so that’s a good sign for us. That lets me know that we have members that still want to stay in this profession,” said Smith.
She said one major step residents, business owners and institutions can take to help reduce crime is to join the CameraConnect D.C. program.
Under the program, video cameras such as Ring cameras, doorbell cameras and private security system cameras are registered with the city so that police know the locations of video cameras that can assist during a public safety threat or after a crime has occurred. The city also offers rebates to residents, businesses, nonprofits and religious institutions for security cameras.
“That is exactly what we need because that really helps us to drive down crime,” Smith said.
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