Washington, D.C

Who will lead DC police? Search for new chief begins – WTOP News

Published

4 months ago

December 9, 2025

Who will lead DC police? Search for new chief begins – WTOP News

The D.C. police department is once again searching for a new chief who will lead the department following Pamela Smith’s departure.

About two years after Pamela Smith was approved to lead officers on a permanent basis, the D.C. police department is once again searching for a new chief.

Smith said Monday that she will step away from her position at the end of the year, calling it a personal decision she talked over with family.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser spoke about Smith’s resignation during a news conference Monday.

“I’ve been around long enough to know and to have lived through transitions,” Bowser said. “There are ways to approach this period of time and do it in a way that’s going to be most beneficial to D.C. residents. I’m going to marinate on it a little bit, and I’ll appoint the right, perfect person.”

Bowser will nominate the department’s next chief. The next permanent police chief will also need to earn the approval of the D.C. Council.

Smith’s resignation isn’t the only shake-up in D.C.’s leadership.

The mayor recently announced that she won’t seek reelection for a fourth term. With about a year left on the job, a reporter asked Bowser about the “challenges” associated with searching for a new chief as she prepares to exit office.

“I don’t call it a challenge,” Bowser said. “Because of the very deep bench we have and because of the great reputation of our department.”

Bowser said she will look internally for a new chief but would be open to nominating an external candidate.

“I’m obviously going to start first with the best police department in the nation,” Bowser said.

At the time Smith took over as chief in 2023, D.C. was at the peak of a crime wave.

Under her leadership, rates of crime have fallen. According to data provided by D.C. police, overall crime dropped 18% in 2025. Homicides are down 30% this year.

What should Bowser be looking for? Groups weigh in

The D.C. Police Union called on Bowser to collaborate with its members in the search for a new permanent chief.

“The ideal candidate must demonstrate proven leadership qualities that prioritize respect for the rank-and-file officers, foster trust within our communities, and commit to reforming broken policies lingering from the misguided ‘defund the police’ era, which resulted in laws and regulations that have undermined effective policing and officer morale,” the union wrote in a news release Monday morning.

Congressman Oye Owolewa, who represents the District in the U.S. House, said there’s an opportunity presented by the change in leadership. He also will not be seeking reelection as D.C.’s shadow representative in 2026.

“As we look ahead, it is my hope that this transition presents an opportunity to continue strengthening trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, while advancing policies rooted in accountability, transparency, and true public safety for all,” Owolewa wrote in a statement.

Looking ahead, Bethany Young, policy director with D.C. Justice Lab, believes the next chief has a chance to make D.C. a national model.

“It feels like it’s in the air, like there’s something really that we’re on the precipice of,” said Young, whose organization pushes for police reform in the District.

Young said she hopes they will listen to residents and be open to reforms, such as limiting traffic stops for minor violations and supporting alternatives to policing for behavioral health crises.

“They want to see more accountability,” Young told WTOP. “They want to see more oversight. They want to have more information about how policing is operating in D.C.”

She also believes the next chief should rely on data, not politics, and be bold enough to speak out when policing practices don’t align with community needs.

“There are certain things that a police chief … cannot control,” Young said. “However, you always have a voice.”

She said the organization didn’t see eye to eye with the chief when it came to what she called an increase in unnecessary police interactions, collaboration with federal agencies and a lack of transparency and accountability.

‘What I’d like to do is give them encouragement’

Smith’s departure comes at a time when D.C. police officers have worked alongside federal partners, such as patrols with National Guard members.

City leaders have insisted police do not work directly alongside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers; but some D.C. residents have reported instances where immigrants are arrested for minor infractions and arrested by ICE agents moments later.

Smith was asked about advice for the next chief and what guidance she has given to police officers in navigating law enforcement responsibilities alongside federal partners.

“They know probably better than I do what’s happening in community from day to day with our federal partners, because a lot of them are very intimately involved, especially our commanders,” Smith said. “At this point, I don’t need to give them any advice. I think what I’d like to do is give them encouragement.”

Smith, who has served in law enforcement for 28 years, said she will be available to support the department’s next leader.

“I will be available to the incoming or interim to provide him or her support with respect to the direction that the police department will continue,” Smith said.

For the next chief, Smith said three things are critical: communication, collaboration with partners and being involved with the community.

“My phone rings all time of day, all time of night, and you have to answer the call, you have to answer the phone, you have to show up,” Smith said.

A passion for D.C. residents is essential, she said.

“You may have to sit in somebody’s basement to have a conversation about something,” Smith said. “You have to dress down sometimes. Sometimes I’m in the community, and people don’t know I’m there. It’s just to protect the anonymity of the folks who really trust the Metropolitan Police Department, but sometimes are afraid to share the information that’s necessary.”

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Washington, D.C

Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week

Published

16 minutes ago

April 19, 2026

Press Room

Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week

4 things to know about the weather:

Chances of rain in the morning
Gusty Sunday
Chilly Monday
Temps will rise again through the work week

Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.

After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.

The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.

Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.

However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.

QuickCast

SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s

MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s

Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.

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Washington, D.C

‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2026

Press Room

‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington

The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.

In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.

“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”

Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.

Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.

“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.

“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”

Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”

A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.

Rachel Reeves posted this image on Instagram from Washington DC on Thursday with the message: ‘Friends that run together – work together.’ Photograph: Rachel Reeves/Instagram

Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.

Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.

But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.

“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”

At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.

The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.

Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.

For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.

“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.

“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”

For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.

In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.

Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.

“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”

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