Days after successive scathing reports eviscerated Chief Pamela A. Smith’s leadership style, she addressed a crowd gathered at D.C. police headquarters on Friday in an exit speech that offered a rare public glimpse of the “pistol-packin’ preacher” she called herself when she stepped in to lead the department in 2023.
“I’m about to be Rev. Pamela A. Smith for just a few moments,” she said, then responded to accusations that her department had been manipulating crime data to please her. “Let’s be really clear about one thing: Never would I, never will I, ever compromise my integrity for a few crime numbers.”
As she rebuked the allegations made in Justice Department and House Oversight Committeereports that came days after she announced her plan to resign at the end of the year, she grew more animated. Her volume climbed, a growl formed in her throat, she raised one hand to gesticulate, then both. Finally, she was yelling and the crowd — which included Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and other city leaders — had risen to its feet.
“Never would I compromise my love for God, the faith that I had in this city,” she said. “Never would I compromise 28 years in law enforcement for a few folk who couldn’t stand to be held accountable.”
“And if I had to do it all over again, I’d do it again,” she said, clapping for emphasis. “How dare you, how dare you, how dare you attack my integrity, attack my character.”
It was a peek into the passion some within the police department have characterized as problematic, with both federal draft reports revealing D.C. police had told investigators that she berated officers at crime briefings and cultivated a “coercive culture of fear” in which people were incentivized to underreport crime. House Democrats responded Friday to one of the reports, saying their Republican counterparts were peddling a “far-fetched conspiracy theory.”
Crime has dropped significantly in D.C. since Smith became chief amid a generational spike in violence, with D.C. police data showing that violent crime in the District is down 28 percent compared with this time last year and 53 percent compared with 2023. Homicides — perhaps the most difficult crime to conceal — have dipped 31 percent year to date. And officers have been arresting more suspected killers, too.
Bowser, in her remarks, said Smith took the helm of the department during the District’s deadliest year in more than two decades and has served as a dogged and effective crime fighter ever since.
As Smith offered her strongest rebuttal yet, supporters rallied around her in a walkout ceremony that often felt more like a church service than a police event. During a walkout ceremony, a law enforcement tradition honoring officers as they leave the force, the departing officer receives a salute and gives their final radio call. The ceremony Friday opened and closed with prayer, every speaker referenced God and city leaders like Deputy Mayor Lindsey Appiah and Executive Assistant Chief Andre Wright likened Smith to persecuted or embattled biblical figures.
“It’s really not about me, it’s about those who don’t know how good God is,” Smith said. “They [mistook] my passion for being the angry Black woman … and sadly my passion is because I love this work. I love God’s people.”
Renée Hall, president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said the criticism leveled against Smith even as crime rates have dropped follows an alarming national trend of Black women being appointed to lead in times of crisis, then used as scapegoats under political pressure.
“We know what it means to lead when the winds are howling, when criticism is loud and when the attacks are not about the work, but are about the Black woman doing the work,” Hall said, adding that the walkout ceremony was a testament to Smith’s service. “A walkout means something in our profession. It is a moment reserved for leaders who have stood in the fire, carried the weight — the weight of the badge — with honor and led with courage when it was hardest to do so. And you, my sister, you did that.”
But even Friday’s ceremony was controversial within the police department. It was scaled back compared to the ceremony held two years prior for the departure of former police chief Robert J. Contee III. In a statement to The Washington Post, the D.C. police union said it considered the celebration “highly unusual.”
“Typically, the MPD does not hold walkout ceremonies for members who are under investigation,” union Chairman Gregg Pemberton said.
Smith confronted her critics at the end of her speech. “I dare not leave without saying something to my haters,” she said. “So I’m going to the Bible when I say this to my haters: F you.”
But then: “It’s not a drop the mic moment … I forgive you. I forgive you.”
She concluded her speech with that expression of forgiveness, invoking an image of Jesus on the cross as he asked God to forgive those who had crucified him. But a few moments later, she climbed back onstage, with a less gracious message: “The same folks who said in that report that they changed their numbers and I did not — the report is very clear, I did not direct anyone — you should investigate those folks,” Smith said.
Smith walked a red carpet out of D.C. police headquarters, stopping to hug each member of her command staff in line as she went — including some who had criticized her to federal investigators, some who she had just suggested should be investigated themselves.
When she reached the end of the red carpet, she saluted interim chief Jeffery Carroll. Bowser placed a hand on her back and escorted her past a crowd of supporters to a police cruiser. She raised a gloved hand and waved before climbing into the car.
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