D.C. Police Chief Doesn’t Know What “Chain of Command” Means

D.C. 's police chief Pamela Smith gave some insight into why the federal district’s crime is so high after Donald Trump announced he’d be federalizing the police force and sending the National Guard and FBI to the area. 

Smith joined the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in May 2022 as their Chief Equity Officer ,where she led DEI efforts. 

“Can you tell us what the chain of command is now?” a reporter was heard asking Smith during a press conference Tuesday morning.

“What does that mean?” she responded.

In 2024, Washington, D.C. saw a homicide rate of 27.3 per 100,000 residents, the fourth highest in the nation, and up from a rate of 13.9 from 2012. If D.C. were made into a state, it would have the highest homicide rate in the nation by a wide margin.  

There were 29,348 crimes reported in Washington, D.C. last year, including 3,469 violent offenses, 1,026 assaults with a dangerous weapon, 2,113 robberies, and 5,139 motor vehicle thefts.

And it may be worse than the official statistics show, as per NBC4 Washington: 

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed Michael Pulliam was placed on paid administrative leave in mid-May. That happened just a week after Pulliam filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant chief and the police union accused the department of deliberately falsifying crime data, according to three law enforcement sources familiar with the complaint. The union claims police supervisors in the department manipulate crime data to make it appear violent crime has fallen considerably compared to last year.

And then there’s the unreported crime: