Once a nomination for a new police chief is made by Mayor Muriel Bowser, the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety will hold confirmation hearings before the full council gets a vote.
Among those on that committee is Ward 6 Council member Charles Allen, who said he’s looking for a chief who can handle several priorities at once.
“Certainly, working to have trust in the community, and after what we have seen this last year, a chief that’s prioritizing rebuilding trust with the community and those that do not like to see MPD alongside federal enforcement, alongside ICE officers,” Allen told WTOP.
Earlier this year, outgoing Chief Pamela Smith and D.C. Police received criticism for working alongside federal officers during President Donald Trump’s administration’s federal law enforcement surge. Many said that move conflicted with D.C.’s Sanctuary Values law and eroded community trust.
Allen said that trust element is crucial because, despite efforts in recent years to build relationships between police and residents, those ties were strained by the federal surge.
“There’s no escaping the fact that the decisions made by the chief to have them collaborate and work with ICE and federal law enforcement, I think, has strained the trust for a lot of folks in our city,” Allen said.
Ward 2 Council member Brooke Pinto, who chairs the committee, said the next chief has a big role to fill ahead. She wants someone who can rebuild the department’s ranks, strengthen trust with the community and keep federal interference out of local policing.
“It is critical that the next Chief of Police is committed to honoring the letter and the spirit of our Sanctuary Values law to protect every single resident of our city and to ensure the policy is implemented fairly and with fidelity,” Pinto said in a statement.
Pinto also stressed the need to recruit and retain officers while maintaining integrity and accountability within the department.
Allen also believes the next chief must build trust within the department itself.
“They’ve got to have the trust of the men and women in the department — that’s both the patrol officer as well as the white shirts, that leadership that you see up in the ranks — and that’s a tricky thing, and they’ve got to be able to have that,” he said.
Allen is also looking for someone who goes beyond the data and takes the time to truly get to know all the communities the department serves.
“The downside, or the risk you have to being solely data driven, is that you end up over-policing some parts of our city, rather than really focusing on safety and justice and being fair and building community,” Allen said.
He also believes Mayor Bowser and the D.C. police department must decide if the search is about finding just an interim chief, so the next mayor can choose a permanent leader, because both will need to work closely together.
“Regardless of who it is, you want that mayor to have somebody that they trust in that position and somebody that we trust,” Allen said.
When it comes to who is chosen, Allen believes the next leader could come from within the department.
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