Outgoing D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith had some strong parting words Friday as she gets ready to leave the department amid allegations of manipulating data to make it seem that crime decreased in the District.
“Let’s be really clear about one thing: Never would I, never will I, ever compromise my integrity for a few crime numbers,” she said at a walkout ceremony in her honor. “Never would I ever 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!”
The fiery remarks came in response聽to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s accusations of crime data tampering.
Smith, who is also a reverend at a Baptist church in D.C., started her speech by giving thanks to God and later added she would never “compromise my love for God or the faith that I had for this city” by manipulating crime data.
“How dare you? How dare you attack my integrity? Attack my character? You don’t know who I belong to!” she said.
In a release from the House committee on Sunday, officials said Smith allegedly 鈥減unished and removed officers for reporting accurate crime numbers and fostered a toxic culture.鈥�
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser rebuked those claims, adding in a letter that the committee’s report was biased “from the outset” and based on one side of the story.
鈥淩ather than letting the investigation proceed and risk losing the opportunity for attention grabbing headlines if it were released after Chief Smith鈥檚 retirement after nearly three decades of law enforcement service, the Committee stooped to ad hominem attacks using cherry-picked quotes without providing additional relevant context,鈥� the mayor wrote.
Smith is the second woman and first Black woman to serve as D.C.鈥檚 police chief. On Dec. 8, she said that she would be stepping down at the end of the month in order to spend more time with family after a nearly 30-year career in law enforcement.
Smith, in the two-and-a-half years she’s served as the police force’s chief, has touted low crime data 鈥� with violent crime in general dropping from 5,345 cases in 2023 to 2,341 as of Dec. 5, 2025.
“I don’t have to talk about what I’ve done in this city, may the work I’ve done speak for me,” she said.
The House committee, however, supported President Donald Trump’s assertion that the federal law enforcement surge from his August crime emergency declaration.
In late August, Trump said the city was 鈥渆xtremely unsafe, and now it鈥檚 extremely safe. We had virtually no crime. The number was down 87% and I鈥檓 trying to figure out where was the 13% because I don鈥檛 think it existed.鈥�
Smith will be stepping down at the end of the month. Executive Assistant Chief of Specialized Operations Jeffery Carroll will serve as interim chief of the D.C. police department.
At the end of her speech, Smith gave one last fiery rebuke to her “haters”: “F you 鈥� I forgive you.”
Watch a portion of her speech below from 7海角社区app:
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