D.C. police Chief Pamela Smith is stepping down at the end of the month after two years leading the department, taking over during a rash of postpandemic violence and ending her tenure on pace for an eight-year low number of homicides in 2025.
Smith was nominated as chief in July 2023 and worked in an acting capacity until the D.C. Council confirmed her later that year, making her the city’s first Black woman to serve as police chief.
When she took over, D.C. was experiencing violence at levels not seen in more than 20 years. The city ended 2023 with 274 homicides, the highest number since 2002, according to city data.
That number dipped in 2024, Smith’s first full year leading D.C.’s police force, to 187. As of Dec. 5, the city had recorded 124 homicides in 2025 and was firmly on track to end the year with the fewest number of homicides since 2017, the city’s statistics indicate.
Instances of violent crime in general dropped from 5,345 in all of 2023 to 2,341 in 2025, as of Dec. 5.
“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 the same effort in 2026.”
Smith, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other city leaders put a spotlight on the falling crime numbers during a news conference Monday. They pointed to investments in the police department, high-visibility patrols and getting guns off D.C. streets as reasons for falling violent crime.
But they aren’t the only ones taking credit.
The dip in crime, at least of late, is happening in the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge and National Guard deployment in the city. When it began in August, D.C. leaders maintained crime was already at a 30-year low, but Trump wasn’t buying it.
Around that same time, Trump’s Justice Department opened an investigation into D.C. police to look into whether department officials were falsifying data to make crime rates appear lower than they were.
In the days and weeks after implementing his law enforcement surge, which at the start included seizing more control over D.C.’s police department, Trump began to take credit for lowering crime.
In late August, he said the city was “extremely unsafe, and now it’s extremely safe. We had virtually no crime. The number was down 87% and I’m trying to figure out where was the 13% because I don’t think it existed.”
During the surge, both Smith and Bowser, who recently announced she would not seek reelection, worked with the Trump administration while maintaining the city’s efforts to make D.C. safe were paying off.
Those efforts included implementing curfew zones, increasing police salaries, boosting recruitment efforts and continued investment in D.C.’s Real Time Crime Center, which will finish its first full year in operation at the end of 2025.
Bowser pointed Monday to accomplishments outside crime enforcement that will set the city up for long-term success. After the 2024-25 school year, D.C. reported its highest four-year graduation rate in more than a decade, according to city data.
“It’s been nothing short of remarkable and it’s due, in large part, to the willingness of D.C. residents and taxpayers to invest in the public education system,” Bowser said.
D.C.’s also been grappling with a lack of affordable housing, something cities around the county are familiar with. During Monday’s news conference, Bowser’s administration highlighted the city’s Housing in Downtown program, saying the city is on track to deliver 8,400 new homes, some of them incentivized by the program.
“At the heart of all of our work is driving down crime and making sure we have safe neighborhoods and that D.C. continues to be a great place to live and to raise a family,” Bowser said.
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